Blood on Olympus (House of Hades)
by Alexandyne
Summary: STOP SCROLLING! Mavum is from long ago, and has been long dead. But with the Doors open, does she finally have a second chance? Or will she throw this chance away to protect her only living relatives, and close the Doors of Death for good? What IS her story, anyway... and just how was Camp Half Blood made? (This is the House of Hades).
1. Welcome to Camp Jupiter

I coughed, hard, tripping over the ground. Blood dripped down my face into my eyes and burned, making it impossible to see where I was going. I was blind; the world around me was red. I stumbled on in the same general direction, led by the call of the water and the hum of magic. _Demigods. _I knew they were there. I knew it for a fact. They had to be. I could feel their magic leaking into the earth, into the water.

The water was getting closer. Then, I fell headlong into a roaring river. I struggled along the river, the energy from the water humming in my blood. I turned and faced where I had come, raising my arms. The water roared in my ears, rising up over my head and flooding the far side. I poured water for as long as my legs could hold me, then staggered back onto the bank an collapsed.

The water rinsed some of the blood from my eyes, an through wet red strands of hair I could see a spiraling blue sky above me. A horn was going off repeatedly somewhere in the distance, and I wished – desperately, of all the things I could wish that's what I wanted most – that it would stop for a moment and let me sleep.

A face appeared over me, with dark hair and feminine features.

"Need," I managed. I rolled over and coughed blood into the sand on the bank. The world reeled around me and tumbled into blackness, and I forced myself to finish the phrase. "Percy. Jackson."


	2. Some Weird Greek Kid

Reyna sat forward on the edge of her seat, her eyes fixed on the girl's slack and bloody face. The infirmary was stuffy and overheated to her, and her hands were clammy. Her toga pulled on her shoulder and she sheets of the hospital bed were rough against her knees, but she didn't lean back away from the girl.

One of the infirmary hands was cleaning the girl's face, wiping the blood and dirt off her face. Her hair was a ratty red that reminded her of the way Piper cut her hair, sorta like with a pocketknife. She was remarkably pale, and whether it was bloodloss or natural Reyna couldn't be sure.

No one else had much cared, they were too busy readying themselves for war with the Greeks. The warship with Percy had just taken off moments before the girl had shown up in the river, throwing water around to kill off a few monsters in her wake.

She didn't have a Roman tattoo, but that didn't mean much; no new demigods did, and that's what the girl had to be. But a girl with the powers of Neptune?

Or was it even the powers of Neptune? What if it was the powers of Poseidon, like Percy? Reyna's stomach churned. She couldn't believe that this girl would be Roman, not after all that happened. But no Greeks other than Percy had been sent here, and now that the 7 of prophecy were on their journey...

But the girl didn't _smell _right. She smelled like honey, salt, ozone, and dust. The power seemed to come off her skin in waves. When Reyna touched her, she jerked back as a surge of electricity zapped her fingers.

The girl's hand moved with striking speed, suddenly reaching out and stopping the movement of the infirmary hand's washcloth. He flinched back, but Reyna didn't see any blue arcs of electricity. The girl opened one eye slowly, then the other, and fixed her gaze on Reyna.

"Reyna of Bellona," the girl purred. Her voice was smooth like liquid honey, with a lilt to it that sounded ancient and British. Her eyes were a non-remarkable shade of blue that seemed distant and flat, making the edges of her pupils dull. They seemed slightly uneven and unmatched, and a white scar laced under one of her eyes along her cheekbone. She blinked, focusing in on Reyna's own face.

"How do you know me?" Reyna asked, erasing the tremor from her voice. Suddenly, the girl seemed to change. She seemed fragile, young, and everything weird or remarkable about her faded. She seemed perfectly ordinary, like any other teenage girl. But something felt slightly false to Reyna; she realized the girl had put up a front. She wasn't actually like this at all. The first girl she met was far more accurate.

"I recognized you," she mumbled slightly, sitting upright and looking down at her hands. The infirmary boy handed her a glass of Ambrosia and bade her drink. The door to the infirmary banged open, and Octavian strode in with such arrogance that he looked like a scrawny rooster.

"You are Roman?" Octavian asked, steel in his voice.

"Of course," the girl said. "Like you."

"Speak Latin then," Octavian demanded. The girl hesitated.

"Qied Nostrum," she said.

"And what does that mean?" Octavian asked testily.

"And us," she replied.

"Translate 'hello, my name is' into Latin." Octavian sat in the bed across from the girl and sat back, crossing his arms and studying her. He had his teddy bears in his belt, making him look utterly ridiculous.

"Uh..." the girl paused. She couldn't.

"I knew it," Octavian said, surging to his feet. The bed he was on fell backwards. "You're Greek!" The girl proceeded to curse in ancient Greek, grasping at her jeans and looking down into her lap. "What are you doing here?! Guards! Traitor! Take her prisoner!" he squawked, slamming open the infirmary door. Three armed campers stormed into the room.

"Should we put her in the cells by the Senate?" one of them asked, fixing his eyes on Octavian.

"No," Octavian shook his head after a moment. "We will pursue Percy and Jason with her. Perhaps they know her. She'd make lovely bait, don't you think... praetor?" He threw Reyna a snide glance.

"They don't," the girl said. She acted fluttery and nervous, but Reyna noticed that her feet were still... she wasn't nervous. This was a play. Reyna's heart started pumping faster, furiously. The girl had wanted to get caught. The girl turned her eyes on Reyna as though she could hear the change in her heartbeat. The girl's eyes twinkled and – no, it must be a mistake. Reyna must've imagined it. Did the girl just wink at her. "It would be a waste of time."

"I saw you bend the water!" Octavian declared. "You are a child of Poseidon! You are Percy's sister!"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I am a child of Hermes," she said. Reyna instinctively knew she was lying.

"Cuff her! Put her in the cars! Don't listen to what she says! Off to Rome!"

* * *

Reyna fidgeted behind the wheel, anxious to be on her way. The only other person in the car was the girl, sitting in the centre of the back seat with her hands cuffed together in front of her.

"You haven't asked any questions of me," she said softly. Reyna glanced at the girl through the rear-view mirror. "Not any proper ones. You do not have to be polite with me, child." Instead of being angry at being called a child by someone so much younger than her, it made Reyna's skin turn cold and her hair prickled. The girl's voice seemed ancient, her accent from a time long ago.

"You're a Greek demigod," Reyna said, fixing her eyes on the road ahead. "I have no questions of you."

"That isn't true and proper. I am fluent in Latin," the girl said. "I am Roman as well. Perhaps not so much as you." The girl stared out the window of the car. The vehicles in the caravan before them started to move and roll out of camp, the eagles circling overhead, and Reyna tapped the gas. The hills rolled by and the camp began to fade into the distance. After a long span of silence, the girl's voice filled the car again. "I'm also not a demigod." Reyna froze for a moment, gawking at her through the mirror. She had to jerk on the wheel to bring the car back into the right lane on the road.

"What do you mean, you aren't a demigod," Reyna said, forcing herself to keep her voice from trembling.

"Jason's my uncle," the girl continued as though she hadn't heard Reyna speak. "Percy's my brother."

"What is your name?" Reyna said, struggling to keep her voice even. The girl looked up, as though seeing the girl for the first time.

"They call me Mavum."

After a moment, she added a name that even Reyna recognized.

"Mavum Tudor."

"You mean, like, the House of Tudor? In England? Like... Bloody Mary? Mary Tudor?" Reyna said, all attempts to remain composed destroyed.

"Of course," she said dismissively. "Well, I am going to take a nap while we wait. Goodnight."


	3. I Escape With Coffee

**I'm kinda brisk in this chapter, mostly because I want to get to the good part. Please R&R!**

* * *

I was exhausted. I refused to talk to Reyna throughout the whole of the trip, which no doubt annoyed her beyond belief. I wanted to explain to her, but I knew I couldn't trust her. This was a great way to get a free ride to camp Half-Blood but other than that this was more an annoyance than anything else.

The sweet coppery taste of blood filled my mouth and I ached all over, but I didn't ask for any ambrosia or nectar. I could break out of my cuffs in a heartbeat, given my identity, and my eyes itched, but I stayed put. No need to get the Roman's panties in a bunch... not yet, anyway.

Around now you may be thinking "Wait, is she not going to explain what the heck is going on? Not cool bro." Yeah, well, tough. Basically, my grandad is Jupiter, my da is Poseidon, and blah blah blah. I'll explain the fine details to you later. Maybe. If you're nice and polite, and ever so patient.

I could feel my brother, uncle/cousin, and friend getting further and further away. Nico was dying, and his life sapping into the earth made my skin crawl and I chafed at the pace.

Camp Half-Blood was so close I could practically feel the Greek magic humming in my blood.

Perhaps I'm mad. I probably am. I do not know what your normal is, because my normal is perfectly different; that I can assure you. But I had precious little interest in actually watching what the bloody hell it was that the Romans were doing as we rolled out to Charleston.

I watched them attack Percy with some mild interest, giggled when Frank dropped Leo in the middle of the fort, and sighed rather dramatically when Octavian made his way back to the cars – bruised and damp – but very much and unfortunately alive. Would he not just QUIT it? He was a perfectly obnoxious bloke, that's what he was.

I was tempted to try and see what they were doing when they sailed across, but I figured the gods wouldn't appreciate my snooping, much less in Rome. I wondered if they had even noticed that I was not exactly where I ought to be, or if they were too busy with their whole Greek/Roman-schitzophrenia. I tried to pull off the quiet, innocent, slightly mad-girl look, which I figure I did fairly well. A latticework of scars crisscrossed my skin, and I had dark rings under my eyes. My hair was frizzy and I had cuff-bruises from the irritating handcuffs they thought would actually hold me.

We made it all the way to New York before I actually felt the need to communicate with someone, and then it was merely to ask for a glass of water. The caravan moved sluggishly through the streets of Manhattan, and somewhere around a dozen of them got out of the car. Ten of them I didn't know, then there was Reyna and Octavian. They must not have trusted the other Roman's to keep an eye on their Greek prisoner, so Reyna got me out of the back and dragged me along with her.

The sidewalk was uneven and irritating, and I was stiff from sitting in the car so long. Reyna thought she had need to drag me along by my elbow almost like she was trying to rip a chicken wing off a roast chicken and eat it with barbecue sauce.

On the corner of the street there was a big lopsided building leaning out over the intersection just a little, and we made our way to the big glass doors. Trash littered the walk out front of the door and I stepped over it, trying not to crinkle my nose.

"If you draw attention from the mortals," Octavian hissed in my ear, "I'll kill you without hesitation." I stared at him.

"You know, just because we can't talk to the God of Bitching right now doesn't mean you have to take his place." I arch an eyebrow at him. My accent was very pronounced over the cursing. Octavian's face grew scarlet and I allowed myself a smug grin. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Reyna struggling to keep a poker face. He stalked in front of us and through the doors in a manner that reminded me of an angry, gangly rooster.

A boy in a lopsided red jacket and a very odd hat that I had never seen before in my life stood behind a desk. Huge lanterns that seemed to be electric hung from strings in the ceiling, and the boy greeted us. He handed us a key, and Reyna led me up three flights of stairs and into a hotel room on the upper floor of the motel. Everyone filed into the room, and I staked out a claim in a seat in a corner. Reyna paced back and forth in front of a window.

I heard a ripping noise, ever so faint, and my head snapped upright. There seemed to be a fracture in the air, that shimmered and rippled. Through it, I could see three faces peering into a smooth, dagger shaped rip. There was a girl closest, who was pretty and had brown hair hanging in her face. Behind her, two boys stood. One I recognized immediately as my brother Percy, though the other took longer to place. I realized after a moment that he was Jason, my uncle. He was my age, sixteen. No one else saw them. The girl closed her eyes, focused, and the dagger rippled out of existence.

After that, everything was perfectly average. Octavian told the others that this is where they would stake out a spot to lead an attack on the Greek camp. I didn't really care, and honestly didn't pay much attention. Every chance Octavian got, he degraded Reyna in some way, escalating as the meeting went on.

"Reyna, how about you and the prisoner go get coffee?" he said, his tone snotty. He was trying to degrade her to the point of going on a coffee run, and me to packmule.

"I was just about to say the same thing," she said politely. "I wanted some fresh air. Who wants coffee?" She was very diplomatic about it, ignoring Octavian's attempt to strip her of status. She took a headcount, then hauled me up by my elbow. We trecked out of the room, through the hallway, down the stairs, out the glass doors, and onto the sidewalk.

We only made it ten yards before I grabbed Reyna's arm and yanked her into an alleyway. She responded, naturally (she was a child of a war goddess, after all) by trying to flip me, but I danced out of reach.

"I'm sorry," I said, eyeing her. "But I will not be going back." The wind stirred around me, and I used it to prevent Reyna from taking a step closer. Reyna's eyes flared with rebellion.

"Who are you supposed to be, huh?" she demanded, taking a step closer – but my wind made her simply walk in place.

"I am Mavum," I replied simply. "I am dreadfully sorry. You will get much disrespect for the simple Greek disappearing on your watch. But I have to help the Greeks. Thanks for the ride cross-country, though."

I released her, and she lunged for me. It was too late for her to lay a finger on me, though. I used the wind to shoot up into the sky, and shot over the city of Manhattan and across the New York country side. Camp Half-Blood wasn't far from here. _Home, here I come. _


	4. Telling My Story to A Cyclopes

**The first bit of her story might be a tad confusing if you don't know the history of King Henry VIII of England. Basically, King Henry had 6 wives, and 3 kids. With his first wife he had Mary I, otherwise known as Bloody Mary. He divorced that wife. With his second wife he had Elizabeth, who would become Queen Elizabeth I of England. With his third wife, he had a son named Edward, who was very sickly and died soon after he became queen, leaving his daughters to fight over the throne. Mary died after five years as queen, leaving the throne to her younger sister, Elizabeth. **

**The scandal with Elizabeth, though, is that her mother was already pregnant with her when Henry and his second wife married, making her illegitimate. The even better bit is that Elizabeth refused to marry, at all. So I thought this fit well with the story. Enjoy!  
**

* * *

Chiron stamped anxiously. He felt old, and tired, and the message Percy and the others had sent – Gods, Percy would make him age two centuries before Percy was through with Camp Half-Blood – had NOT been welcome news. He swished his tail and stared over the lake, and was just turning to go look at the archery range when there was a thud behind him.

He turned, and saw a girl picking herself up from the dirt. Dust covered her and her hair was so messy it looked like Grover had tried to eat it. She brushed herself off and straightened her shirt, and tried to run her fingers through her hair.

"Hullo Chiron," she said, giving up on her hair. "Long time no see."

Chiron turned fully to face her, frowning and crossing his arms over his chest. Under a thick layer of dust, he could see the girl had a straight nose, slightly elvish features, and dull blue eyes.

"Sorry," he said, "but, do I know you?"

She frowned at him. "Oh! Yeah! I can finally take these out," she said. She reached up and shoved her fingers into her eyes, and when she pulled them out they had curved blue disks on them. Contacts. She blinked a few times, then looked up at him. Her eyes made him take a step backwards. One eye was sea-green, the other a stormy gray, and around both there was a ring of black that made them look like incredibly odd and peculiar targets. "How about now? Recognize me?"

"Mavum," he said, his shoulders tense. He knew her, he had taught her. And watched her die. "Did you not fancy being dead?"

"No, no I rather didn't," the girl said, plopping back in the dirt. "The Doors of Death opening were an extraordinary stroke of luck."

"Mavum..." he said slowly. He wasn't entirely sure how mentally stable the girl was. The last time, she had been very near madness.

"Don't worry. Death does wonders for your sanity," she said, answering his unspoken question. "I am here to help. I figure if ever I needed to lend a hand, it's now."

"You will go mad again," Chiron cautioned. Her presence made him uneasy. But, she spoke – aside from her accent and slightly formal manner of speaking – like a perfectly average, sane, teenage demigod. Though none of those adjectives fit her.

"Will not," she said crossly. "I wasn't mad until I was nearly dead, that was only for an hour or two. And I did right in the end. Are you honestly going to tell me I can't help? What am I supposed to do then?"

"Very well. There is, however, some introductions you will need to make to the camp," he said. He didn't want to give into her as easily as he was, but he didn't want to argue with her either. There was a quiet thumping, padding sound coming towards them, and he turned to see Tyson and Mrs. O'Leary coming up the hill, with Ella the harpy perched between Mrs. O'Leary's shoulder blades.

He glanced back at Mavum. "You can start by introducing yourself to Tyson. TYSON, my boy, there's someone you should meet." With that, Chiron turned and cantered down the hill.

Mavum looked up at Tyson, taking in the fact that he had only one eye. "Hullo," she replied. "Is your dad Poseidon?" she asked, very politely. Cyclopes weren't known for their intelligence, and she wasn't sure how wise Tyson was.

"Yes!" he replied, sitting down. Even sitting, he was just about on eye level with her.

"Mine is, too," she said, looking at the grass and sitting down with him.

"You're my sissy?" he asked.

"Yes, from long ago," she said, looking up and fixing her eyes on him.

"Your eyes a pretty," he said, watching her. "Why are they different colors?" She smiled at him broadly, then sat down beside him and began to tell him her story.

"Well, Tyson. A long, long time ago, there was a King. His name was Henry VIII, and he married a pretty girl named Catherine. But, Catherine only had one child, a little girl named Mary. Henry needed a son, to be the prince. After years, Henry found another woman.

"Her name was Anne. She was pregnant with Jupiter's child, but she told Henry that the child was his. So, Henry left Catherine and married Anne. Anne had a little girl named Elizabeth. Henry discovered that Elizabeth was not his, and grew very very angry and killed Anne. He told no one that Elizabeth was not his, though.

"Time wore on and eventually, Elizabeth became queen. Everyone told her she had to marry, and she refused. She had the nickname, the 'virgin queen'. This was because she fell in love with a man she could never be with. She fell in love with Poseidon, and had by him a child. A little girl. But because she was unmarried, this was very scandalous and covered up so no one would ever know. The little girl was shipped away, far away, all the way to the new world.

"The little girl was eight, when someone came and found her. Apparently, none of the creation of this girl was an accident. In a time filled with wars and when an entire new half to the world is discovered, the Gods needed a representative with a cause. Someone like a demigod, but with enough power to rally all the other demigods. She had a gray eye, like Jupiter, and a green eye, like Poseidon.

"She did well at her job, but there was very little excitement. She began to grow very bored. Hades was getting upset, that there was a girl who was supposed to represent the gods... but the girl only represented his brothers. So, he called the girl down to the Underworld. He offered her a deal that she couldn't refuse... in exchange for telling people about Hades, not just Poseidon and Jupiter, he would give her powers as though she was his own daughter. For such a slight price, for this sad and lonely god, she agreed. Hades cast the spell, and black rings encircled her eyes.

"There was a catch that Hades didn't warn her about, however. So much power was never designed to get stored in a mortal body. Every time she used her powers, just a little bit of her essence burned up. Very slowly, she was dying.

"She was just around... 15, I suppose, when Persephone told her of Hades' treachery. All the other gods were very cross, because now the girl didn't represent THEM. So, in order to appease the gods, the girl had to go on a quest.

"She found Chiron back in England. She spoke with him, and an idea blossomed between the two. There should be a camp, in the New World, where demigods for all the gods could go and train, and be safe. So, together, they went to the New World. The gods spoke to Chiron and listed off his responsibilities, and they even spoke to Dionysus about being a mentor, and the gods were generally at peace. This was a middle ground, so that every one of them would have an equal, universal representation in this New World.

"But you see, the demigods and gods weren't the only ones interested in the new world. So were the titans, and the monsters. And eventually, the huge concentration of demigods brought a lot of monster-like attention. The monsters gathered into an army, and marched upon the camp. The demigods were greatly outnumbered, and the girl knew the camp would fall.

"So, instead, she used the combined powers of Jupiter, Poseidon, and Hades to create a huge forcefeild that domed over the camp, that would not only keep monsters out... but mortals as well.

"The magic was too much for her, though. It burned up the last of her essence. She died in the middle of the camp, and when she died her body turned into her father's essence, making a lake in the middle of the camp."

Tyson looked at her questioningly, then at the lake they were sitting beside.

She offered an explanation, "That girl was me."


	5. My Boyfriend The Lake

I spun, my toes digging into the soft dirt. My dress spun out around my knees, and the grass tickled my feet. My dress was that sort of thin cotton that drifts around your knees, so light it feels like a breeze. The light made the house gold, and the clouds were rimmed in pink and violet. Naiads were singing somewhere, their voices lilting and dancing in the spring breeze. One of them had a guitar, and clear, clean notes seemed to spin in the air around me.

A warm, rough hand grabbed mine, taking my hand up over my head and spinning me again. His eyes were a dark, chocolate brown with a stubborn set to them, and he grinned a lopsided sort of mischievous grin at me. I smiled back. His hair was dark and had a sort of flip to it, curling over his eyes and down one side.

He spun me again and again, until I was dizzy and stumbled forward into his arms. He laughed, and reached down. A flower grew out of the earth to meet his fingertips. It was like a rose, in all colors. It seemed to shimmer and glow in his hand, and he grinned that lopsided grin at me.

"I call it Adrian's Rose," he said, tucking it behind my ear. "For the arch in Greece." I laughed softly.

"It's Hadrian's wall, goof," I replied. He always said it wrong, it was an ongoing joke between the two of us. His Spanish accent made it hard to tell what he said.

"But Adrian sounds so much better, doesn't it?" he said, tucking my hair around the stem of the flower to hold it in place. "Adrian's Rose." He laughed brightly, then stepped back and spun me again. The nymph's song danced around us, and I never felt more alive than I did just then.

Chiron was standing off to the side, and I caught him smiling broadly at us. I began to sing, softly, in Latin, along with the nymphs. His fingers danced across my palm, and the earth was soft under my feet. He joined in, singing in Ancient Greek, his voice deep and carrying. The grass seemed to dance with us, and for a moment, everything was perfect.

The ground shook beneath my feet. He stiffened and spun, looking over the hill. He pulled his pen out of his belt and clicked it, transforming into Riptide. Before I could ask him to stop, he ran up the hill. I could see an army of monsters cresting the hill in the distance. I ran after him, and watched him get torn apart.

I screamed so loud the army stopped. I raised my hands over my head, and a crackling wall of lightning enveloped the camp. I kept running, my feet gliding over the damp earth. I fell to my knees. His brown skin was slick with blood, and he looked at me. His chocolate eyes melted, and he reached out for my hand. I held it tight, kissed him on the forehead, and then sat back. His eyes glazed over, and his hand went limp in my hand. I picked up his sword and, very gently put the cap back on it, shrinking it down into a pen. I picked him up and carried him down the hill.

People were running around the camp, getting amour, but they were all untrained as of yet. The camp hadn't been open long. I felt my mind slipping away, and I sat down in the middle of the feild with him. The Naiad's songs grew sad and old, but I wasn't listening. Madness blocked out all reason from my mind. All I could see was his face growing ashen with dead, and his blood growing cool and sticky in my dress.

I heard Chiron come up behind me, but I didn't turn to look. I sat there, staring at him for an hour. I felt myself growing weak as I maintained the lightning wall, but I didn't care. I finally got to my feet, looked Chiron in the eye, and handed him Riptide.

"Keep this," I said softly. "One day, a demigod will need your help. He will remind you of someone from long ago. He will be the most powerful demigod you have seen in a very long time, and he will be given a seemingly impossible quest. Then, and only then, are you to give anyone this sword. Then, and only then, will anyone be worthy to hold this sword."

Chiron didn't say a word.

"Leave this place," I said. I then looked up at the sky, standing by his body. Chiron trotted away, and I knelt in the grass. "I'm sorry." I brushed the hair out of his eyes, and wiped some of the blood off his face with the hem of my skirt. I leaned forward, and kissed him on the forehead. "I'm sorry, Tanner Leo Valdez." I sat back. He looked peaceful.

I got to my feet, stepped backwards, and raised my hands to the sky. The magic flowed in my blood, and the wall of lightning rose.

"May a monster never never enter here unwelcome," I said to the sky, "Nor a mortal. May the sky always be clear. May this be a safehold. May the Gods bless this place." The powers of Death, the Sky, and the Sea poured through my hands and to the wall of lightning. It came up over the sky, closing in a huge dome of magic. A tingling raced through me, like I had been electricuted. All my strength left me, and I collapsed beside him. My skin was damp, and as I watched, water seemed to run from my skin, turning the soft earth below me to mud.

The water became me, and me the water. The ground gave way, and I felt the magic in my blood hum with impossible power. I closed my eyes, and I could no longer feel my arms or legs or face. I was water. I was the lake. My consciousness sank through the earth, until everything was dark.

The darkness gave way to a vivid image of Percy fighting to breathe in a darkened room, that was filling with a black polluted sludge of water. I called out for him, yelling for him to try and get to clean water, where he could breathe. He couldn't hear me. Even though I wasn't there sludge was filling my own lungs. I was suffocating, dying, turning into this sludgy water...

* * *

I woke up, my heart hammering in my chest, struggling to breathe. I couldn't think, I was drenched in sweat. I kicked so hard at the blanket that I fell out of the bed, flat on my face in the dirt of the Hermes cabin. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I looked up at the rafters. I heard other people stirring in their beds, and struggled to even out my breathing.

I took several deep breaths, but didn't try to move. A scrawny young boy peered at me, then asked me why I was on the ground.

"Just a bad dream," I managed. "I'm going to go take a walk." I got to my feet, swaying, stars twinkling in the backs of my eyes and making my head ache. I walked unevenly out of the cabin, into the shadows of the night.

"Sissy?" Tyson asked, plodding towards me.

"Tyson," I managed. "How would you like to go see Percy?"


	6. My Brother the Romantic

**Ok, so, um. I've been really good about it this time, just going off of how many views I'm getting (how COOL is that? Like, I just found out they have something where you can see how many visitors you got and stuff), and I've been updating every 20 or 30 views I've gotten. (I had no idea I was actually getting that many views. One of my other stories has almost 7000! Pretty flippin cool, eh?) BUT, I've only gotten one review the ENTIRE time, and I really want some feedback.**

**I don't want any of that "Lol this is awesome update" bullcrap. I want "Well, it's good, BUT... it was actually spelled _ instead of _" or "Wouldn't it be cool if you incorporated Hecate in this? Like, that would be BAWLER." Or maybe you think I should do more cliffhangers or fight scenes or whatnot. I want... FEEDBACK. If you want to do something hollow just to let me know you're actually reading, that's great and fantabulous and all but the stuff with the real content, when you actually have something to say, means way more.  
**

**Anyway, there's my long boring authors note so far for the series, yeah?**

* * *

Saying Mrs. O'Leary is friendly is a severe understatement. I climbed onto her back with Ella, and Ella scooted as far from me as she could and still be on Mrs. O'Leary's back. Tyson held on and Mrs. O'Leary leaped into the shadows. There was a sort of ripping sound, and on the other side of the shadows someplace that had not been there before came into existence.

The noon day sun beat hot down on Rome, and few people spared a glance for the very odd group the four of us made. I figured they thought Mrs. O'Leary was a horse and the rest of us were people. Rising up into the sky on the horizon, a ship floated high into the air. I frowned, looking at it. It was a very peculiar ship that seemed to glisten with a yellowed metal, gold or bronze perhaps. It floated with no wings, just oars.

Definitely enchanted. Tyson pointed to it, "Percy's ship!" he declared. My heart started hammering. Something in the air felt wrong. A few moments later, the earth trembled like an explosion.

"Run, Tyson!" I yelled, jumping off of Mrs. O'Leary's back and up into the sky. I used the wind to shoot along the street, fast as I could go. I wondered what the mortals saw, but then again I didn't really care. I whipped up over the buildings so I wouldn't have to dodge along the spiraling streets of Rome, flying through the sharp wind.

I made incredible time, making it to the parking lot of a huge building... or, rather, what would have been a parking lot, but it had caved in. A huge cavern was below it, and my eyes widened. I could see cracks crisscrossing the floor far below, and a huge statue reared up to where the parkinglot would have been. The ship hovered over the opening, and down below I could see Percy and Annabeth hobbling towards the ladder. I set down on the ground over the lip of the rim, letting my magic hum a little so I wouldn't startle them when I approached.

Suddenly, Annabeth started sliding backwards. I jump aboard the deck of the Argo II, thinking that Percy would catch her and if not, Jason would fly to catch her. It served as the distraction that I needed, and I ran below decks. I pushed open doors. _It had to be here somewhere. _Finally, I found Annabeth's room, and on the wall, resting on a peg, was precisely what I was looking for.

I took the Yankees cap off the wall, and pushed it over my head. After a moment, I turned invisible. The second the statue had been uncovered, she must have returned the magic to the hat. I ran back up to the deck and looked over the edge into the abyss... just in time to see Percy and Annabeth fall over the edge.

My heart leapt into my mouth and I jumped off the boat, diving down through the open air into the abyss. There was a familiar tug... and I stopped midair. I knew this place. _Tartarus. _I panicked, my mind blanking, and I balked... I balked.

_I balked. My own fear overwhelmed me, and I fought back to the ship. _Realizing what I was doing, I took a deep breath and turned back around. I saw Annabeth's backpack tumble towards the abyss, and flew down to catch it. I then flew over to Percy and Annabeth. Percy had grabbed hold of a small ledge poking out, but his fingers were slipping. I reached out to grab hold of his arm to brace him, when a voice rattled in my skull.

_Don't. _

I flinched backward, the voice driving through my head like hot nails. It was distinctly feminine, and stank of raw power. I gasped, nearly falling out of the air, clutching at my head.

I'd like to believe that Percy saw me, when I unsettled the hat on my head. I'd like to think that he saw me, and that maybe – just maybe – somewhere, in the deep recesses of his mind, he recognized me. I knew he didn't. His hand tightened around Annabeth's, and in a split second... he let go. He yelled something up to the others, and I saw Nico nod, but my head was pounding too much. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I watched him and Annabeth tumble down, down, down... down into the Abyss.


	7. My Uncle Tries to Kill Me

**Alright... that isn't what I meant but I got a review (even though it was on a different chapter, I'll still let it count because I'm done with this one so why not?) Anyway. Please review, guys! :D**

* * *

My head ached, but I managed to get back over the bar of the ship and fall flat on the deck. There was scraping and the statue of Athena fit inside the ship's hull, scraping just a tad. There was a pounding, and it took me a while to figure out that the pounding was NOT within my skull.

The steady THUD THUD THUD THUD with a lighter, quieter Thumpathumpa Thumpathumpa Thumpathumpa was getting louder and closer. I pushed myself upright, my knees trembling still from Tartarus. A deep fear was in the pit of my stomach, making me feel sick. I looked across the parkinglot to see Tyson and Mrs. O'Leary coming towards the ship. Mrs. O'Leary dove into a shadow and disappeared. I walked dizzily down into the hull and wandered through the bottom of the ship, listening. I heard a dull whining behind a door, and opened it.

The smell of the sea filled my nose. There wasn't much in the room, but there was some sand in the corner and a spare pair of shoes, along with a worn and slightly smelly Camp Half-Blood t-Shirt in an obnoxious shade of orange. It smelled like home and, with a pang, I realized it was Percy's room.

I took off the Yankee's cap. Mrs. O'Leary was whimpering, sniffing around the room, and Tyson was looking at me expectantly.

"I'm sorry, Tyson," I said with a sigh. "Percy... had to go to the Underworld. He's in Tartarus."

"Tartarus?" Tyson asked. His face drooped and his eye grew sad. His shoulders slumped. "Percy not allowed to go on quests without me. He always gets in trouble."

"I tell you what," I said, rubbing my eyes. "We'll sit in here for a bit. Then we'll go talk to the others. They should get far enough away that they can't just make us leave, yeah? We have to stick with them and get Percy back."

"Yes," Tyson agreed, nodding enthusiastically. I walked towards the bed, but decided that was not all well and proper. Mrs. O'Leary lay down on the ground, stretching her paws out infront of her, and I sat down next to her instead. I lay back against her, staring up at the ceiling. The hell hound's fur was soft and warm, and before I knew it I was fast asleep.

* * *

Everything was cold and dank, and the earthy scent of death was in the air. It was like a cave which had never seen the light of day, so far down that the pressure made your lungs want to burst. There was no bottom to this pit, but rather a point when the pressure got so great that... it was like water, where you just floated, but instead it was air.

Percy was drifting in space, his arms around Annabeth. Annabeth's eyes were open and staring into the darkness, seeing nothing... absolutely nothing. She was stiffly unnerved, and she held onto Percy's hand clasped infront of her. Her ankle was out straight in front of her, the spider webs cut away from her Bubble-Wrap cast. Her breathing was ragged, and she released Percy's hand and reached down to her ankle. She slowly began removing it, layer by layer, leaving only the last layer of Bubble-Wrap before leaning back into him again.

He stirred and ran his fingers through her hair, stairing blindly down at where he knew she would be, but there was nothing but darkness. I focused on them, wondering why I could see them, when I realized I was glowing ever so slightly. I was a ghost. Panic seized my chest and I had to take deep breaths.

_I'm not dead again. No, I'm not. I'm dreaming. Deep breaths... Deep breaths._

"Percy," I said. He didn't hear me. "PERCY," I tried again.

_Touch him and speak. Tell my daughter I'm proud of her. _My eyes widened as that same, hot-nails voice ripped through my head.

"Athena?" I asked, spinning around and looking through the pit of Tartarus. She didn't answer, but I put my hand on Percy like she had said. My hand nearly went through him, and his skin was cold and damp.

"Percy," I tried again. He flinched and spun, looking for the voice in the darkness. "Percy, we're coming. Don't worry. It won't take long. Tyson misses you. You don't know me, but I know you. Tell Annabeth her mum is proud."

I felt something like a vacuum, trying to take me away from the place. I let go, and he stared, open mouthed.

"Wait! Who are you?" he called out. I hesitated, then put my hand back on his arm.

"I'm your sister," I replied. "From long ago." I heard footsteps, and released his arm.

* * *

I opened my eyes into Percy's cabin in the ship. The footsteps were outside the door.

"Nico, I guess you can use Percy's room. Let me just clean it out for you," Jason's voice echoed around the hallway. I cursed, fumbling around for the Yankee's cap. I was still looking for it when the door popped open.

Jason saw us immediately. His jaw went slack. I grimaced, and he spun on his heel.

"Trespasser! On the ship!" he called. He whipped out his sword and pointed it at my windpipe.

I smiled weakly. "Hey, uncle Jason..."


	8. There's a Hell Hound in my Bedroom

**I didn't intend to post this until I got another review, but... because I got over 100 views while I was at school today (dude, that may not mean much to you, but that's like a huge whoop-de-da to me. Like, how crazy is that?! 100 in the span of a few hours?!) I figured I might as well, yeah? But please review, it is what tells me you guys really like it. :3**

* * *

**Leo.**

There was a commotion downstairs, and Leo looked up from his spot at the helm. His shock was ebbing, and he frowned slightly. Nico and Jason had gone down moments before, because Nico would need somewhere to stay – Percy's room.

"_Intruders!_" reached his ears,a nd he tensed. Coach Hedge stopped pacing the deck and muttering about blowing things up. Jason's voice reached them again. "_Unknown girl in Percy's room!... What do you mean by UNCLE JASON?!_" Coach Hedge waved his club around over his head, yelling something about beating the intruder to a bloody pulp. Leo locked Festus on auto-pilot, and headed for the stairs.

Down below was dimmer than normal, and he saw Nico and Jason's backs to the wall. Jason was tense and half-way through Percy's door, his sword disappearing into the room. Leo noticed that, curiously, Nico was paler than normal, but perfectly relaxed.

"Get up SLOWLY," Jason said, stepping back slightly. Leo heard a slight rustling noise in the room.

"Sissy?" a deep, course, familiar voice came from the room.

"Don't worry, Tyson," a voice like bells and cream came from the room. Whoever the voice belonged to had a heavy British accent with an underlying Greek tone to it, and spoke with an old sort of lilt. Curious, Leo stepped forwards to see the inside of Percy's room. With Jason's sword-tip in her throat, was a girl Leo had never seen before. She had a bright yet dark red hair that hung to her shoulders and was carelessly cut like Piper's. She was pale, and only an inch shorter than him. The print of fur was on her cheek, like she had fallen asleep on... a Hell Hound. Leo looked past her and saw a very large Hell Hound looking at them with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. Just behind her, a Cyclopes poked his head up. But not just any cyclopes...

"Tyson!" Leo declared, his face breaking into a grin. "How's it going, buddy?" he stepped past Jason and his sword, clasped Tyson's hand, an bumped his shoulders in a bro-hug. Tyson's face broke into a grin, and he got to his feet. His head very nearly touched the roof, but he didn't seem to mind much.

"Who's this?" Leo asked, gesturing to the girl still being held at sword point. He didn't bother to ask about the Hell Hound, because just knowing Tyson told him that it was Mrs. O'Leary.

"Sissy," Tyson replied, grinning. He put his hand on her shoulder, which disappeared under his huge fist.

"Sorry for startling you," she said mildly. She seemed entirely unconcerned with the sword at her throat. She had her eyes fixed on Nico, and Nico seemed to be growing paler by the moment... maybe from standing too long after his ordeal?

"What does he mean by 'sissy'?" Jason said, bobbing his blade slightly to get her attention.

"I will tell you," she said slowly, "after you turn around and catch Nico." Leo's eyes flickered back to Nico, who had grown so pale he might as well have been made of paper. His knees were beginning to buckle and his eyes closed. Coach Hedge leaped forward and caught him mid-fall, awkwardly holding his bat between his teeth to keep from dropping it. Leo stepped out of his way, and Hedge dragged Nico backwards through the room and dumped him onto Percy's bed.

"How did you know he was going to fall?" Jason said, stepping forward. The girl arched a thin red eyebrow at him.

"Perhaps I was WATCHING him," she said, stepping lightly out of the sword's reach and proceeding to slam her palm against her forehead. Facepalm. "Sir, he almost died, and you fancy that it was not a good idea to keep an eye on him?"

Sir? What? Leo snorted, and the girl turned to look at him crossly. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she grew very pale. Immediately, she turned away from him, keeping her eyes on Jason instead. Her back was very rigid, and she seemed to avoid looking at him.

"Come with us," Leo said, stepping from the room and squaring his shoulders. If Percy wasn't here, then he was Admiral of his ship and he was damn well going to act like it. "Jason, stop waving that sword in her face. Seriously, dude?"

The girl stepped lightly around Jason and followed right behind Leo. Piper was standing in the hallway with Hazel and Frank, and Coach Hedge walked out of the room after making sure Nico wouldn't die any time soon. Leo strode down the hallway, to where it opened up around the huge table. Leo sat back in his chair, and everyone took positions around it one by one. Piper... Hazel... Frank... Jason... Coach Hedge... leaving the girl standing awkwardly. Tyson plodded in around her, taking one of the last two remaining chairs. The very final one was the one directly across from Leo.

The girl stepped towards it with an awkward sort of grace, her face puckering slightly like she was having to walk into a doctor's office where she knew she'd have to get a shot. She pulled it back and sat down, splaying her fingers on the table. Leo noticed how long her fingers were, and abstractly thought she played piano.

"So," Jason said after a moment of silence. "You mind telling us who you are? Like, you show up on our ship and just decide to take a fabulous nap in Percy's room – who conveniently... disappeared... by the way – with a hell hound and all you have to say is 'hey'?"

"Sorry," she said, focusing her eyes in on him. For the first time, Leo saw her eyes, and it sent a shiver of ice down his spine. They were incredibly unearthly. He had seen people with two different colored eyes before, but this was something very different. There was a ring of black around them, almost cartoon-like... or target like. Just enough that in the dim light, her pupils dialated, making them entirely pitch black. "I am Percy's sister... from a long time ago. My dad is Poseidon."

"What's your mum's name?" Piper asked curiously, leaning forwards over the table.

"Elizabeth," the girl replied, looking down into her lap and shaking her hands. She kept wringing them over and over again and then, as though forgetting forgotten manners, sat up straight and focused on some point in the distance.

"Elizabeth... who?" Hazel asked. Leo noticed that her golden eyes were narrowed, as though she could see into this girl. Leo wanted to ask her what she saw...

"Um... ah... Queen Elizabeth I of England," she said. She rubbed her neck and looked down again to avoid looking at them.

"WHAT?" Coach Hedge sat forwards, squirting whatever soda he was drinking out his nose and all over everyone. Leo grimaced and wiped his face, trying not to crinkle his nose. "Red hair... eyes... Lemme guess. Your name is Mavum?" he said, scowling. "Bullshit."

"Um. Who is Mavum?" Piper asked, raising her hand slightly.

"Me," the girl said, sighing. "Thought you would be too young to know that story," she glared daggers at Hedge.

"I am," Hedge said, proudly. He may look like he was 40, but with the way satyrs age he was into his 80s. "... Chiron sent me an Iris message, saying to expect you. He didn't tell me your story."

"Well – you don't need to know it," she said, shrugging. Leo snorted, and looked over at Tyson.

"Hey, Tyson, did she tell you a story? Would you mind telling us?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. He caught on to what she was hinting at fast. "Not unless she says I can." The girl sighed, resting her head in her hands.

"You can tell them, but, please, first things first," she said. "I talked to Percy about ten minutes ago. They're sinking through Tartarus. By my guess, they're half way through sinking. BUT, it won't do them any good if they get to the Doors of Death and we don't meet them on the other side."

"WE?" Frank said, butting in for the first time in the convo. Leo gave him an appraising look.

"Yeah, we," she said, giving Frank a challenging glare. "Got a problem with that?"

"Well, um, we need seven and we already have seven," Hazel said, stepping in. "Any more would curse the quest."

"Actually, by my count, there are only six," the girl said. "Let me count. NICO..." she emphasized his name, and Leo realized immediately what she was getting at. "... Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, and... ah, you." she pointed at Leo, not saying his name.

"Leo," he supplied, needled. How did she know everyone else's names, but not HIS?

"So, you need a seventh. May I suggest myself?" she said, looking at them. "Percy and Annabeth... are no longer part of the quest as of when they entered Tartarus." She spat the name like a foul-tasting poison.

"Maybe, we need to learn more about you first," Leo said, stealing the words out of Jason's mouth. He flashed Jason a grin. She sighed, and motioned to Tyson while resting her head in her hands. She rubbed her fingers into her temples, and Tyson began to weave a story.

When it was through, Leo's jaw felt slack. "So... Mavum," Hazel was the first to recover. The girl made a face at the name.

"What?" Hazel asked.

"Mavum. Who the heck names their kid MAVUM?" she grumbled.

"Well, what should we call you?" Leo asked, stepping in. She thought about it a moment, then a slow smile broke across her face.

"Adrian. I rather think you should call me Adrian."


	9. An Irked Author's Note

Ummmm... Ok, guys, I appreciate getting hundreds of views but that means nothing if I don't get REviews. It doesn't tell me anything about what you guys think. Through this entire thing so far I have gotten 3.

So, I refuse to post the next one - even though it's written - until I get a review... guys, I need to know what you think. I don't care what the review says, if it's a good or a bad on, but I want to know what you guys THINK about it. So, I will post authors notes until I get a review. Just one. Saying anything. But a review. Honestly, guys? It takes about thirty seconds to click "add review" and write either "Wow, this sucks ass. You should never write ever again." or "Thumbs up! How about you throw in (insert favorite greek myth of your choice here)?" or even just "Sup. It's a review. I read the whole thing all the way through, which mean it's good enough to catch my attention." Or whatever the bloody hell it is you people have to say.

K, thanks guys...


	10. Oh, Gods

**Alright, thanks guys... I came home from school to 5 reviews. I really didn't want to do what I did, I didn't want this to be like pulling teeth, but I honestly do need to know what you guys think. Otherwise I'm walking along blind here and... yeah. So I'm not going to do what I used to do "3 reviews until the next chapter" or whatever, I'm trying to be chill about it this time, but your reviews are very important to me. Thanks for those 5 who reviewed, though! Because I did get more reviews than I was thinking (I was honestly expecting like... one.) I'm going to go ahead and write two chapters. Thanks!**

**In the time I had while waiting though, I did get bored and I've started doodling a comic book thing for Mavum's Story (like her entire history) and if I ever finish it, I'll upload it and link you guys. :3**

* * *

**Piper**

Piper's shoulders were stiff and tense, and everything seemed to weigh her down. This weird girl shows up named Adrian... now, Piper wasn't girly or one to be judgmental or anything, but what sort of girl was named Adrian?... just after Percy's and Annabeth's fall?

The only thing that kept Piper from freaking out entirely was the fact that Tyson was with her. Piper trusted Tyson and knew that he would have seen through it if Adrian tried to lie to him. The girl's story was too weird for Piper's taste, even weirder than Hazel's, and to be honest Hazel's story was weirder than a Pegasus riding a unicycle. Daughter of Queen Elizabeth and Poseidon? Granddaughter of Jupiter? ... What?

Jason didn't seem too keen on the girl either. The girl hadn't been intimidated by Jason's sword, which probably prickled his pride a little. Piper made up her mind not to judge the girl too quickly, because she seemed nice enough, and helpful enough, but she certainly wasn't going to lend this stranger her trust. She decided she'd keep an eye on Adrian, and be prepared to use her Charmspeak if she needed it.

Jason's hand squeezed her shoulder from where it rested around her, bringing her back into focus. The railing of the deck was cool and smooth beneath her palms, and Jason's arm was warm and heavy. She leaned into him, staring off at the ground below.

"So," she said, after a long companionable sort of silence.

"So," he said. There was reluctance in his voice, like he didn't want to end the peaceful quiet, but also some eagerness to speak and distract himself from his thoughts.

"What do you think is up with the red-head?" she asked, sorting through her mental stack of questions.

"I think we might as well give her a go, and kill her if she becomes a threat," Jason replied thoughtfully, his hand on his sword. "But she was right about us needing 7 people, and she might as well be that person. But, I don't think she's really a demigod, I don't know if she counts."

"What do you mean, not a demigod?" Piper asked, looking up at him. His face was etched gold in the setting sun, making that little scar she loved stand out white against his skin. His storm grey eyes had lines that caught the cold in them, making them star-shaped and entirely otherworldly. She got caught in his eyes for a moment, only to get shaken from them when he answered her question.

"Well, she's 3/4 god... and then she was gifted by Hades, so doesn't that cancel out the other 1/4 human blood? Doesn't that make her a god? Or goddess, whatever," Jason said, looking down at her and smiling lopsidedly.

"But she's mortal," Piper said. "There's no such thing as a mortal god. The only label that would fit her is demigod."

"True," Jason said. "But I never liked labels." He bent down and kissed her on the lips, then straightened and continued staring off into space.

"Me neither," a voice from behind them said. Piper glanced over her shoulder to see Adrian standing on the deck. She had changed clothes, where she got them from Piper had no clue, into faded jeans and a camp-half-blood T-shirt. Hanging outside her T-shirt was a small metal disk of an amulet, depicting a caricatured bolt of lightning striking waves. There was a lopsided glass bead on either side of the amulet. She looked down at herself. "These are new. When I was there, we only got necklaces with beads... pretty nifty. Isn't that what the new words are?" She looked up at Piper.

Her eyes unnerved Piper. They just weren't _right. _Sure, she had seen people with two different colored eyes before. There was even this guy she knew in grade school who had one eye that was brown, then one eye that was half blue and half brown (totally cool). But this was _different. _Her eyes seemed like they were electrified, and were unnaturally bright. It looked like someone had taken one of Percy's and one of Jason's eyes and brightened them with some sort of picture effect, then pushed them into this girl's head. And the black ring about them was just... weird.

Piper broke the eye contact quickly, and the girl shrugged and walked away.

Piper turned back to Jason, but the moment was broken. So, instead, she pulled out her dagger and stared into the surface of the blade.

For several moments, it was a blank slate of bronze metal. Then it rippled, and a place that was very familiar to her appeared. It was home to her now; the lake of Camp-half-blood shimmered in the midday sun, because in New York it was still daylight, but Piper could tell by how bright it was that whenever this was wouldn't be for a couple hours. The imagine in the dagger revolved like someone was holding a camera and spinning, then she could see the hill.

The hill trembled slightly. Then, a single person walked over the crest of it. The person was skinny and wearing armor slightly too big on him, and there was a purple cape draped over his shoulders. Then, hundreds crossed the hill behind him, decked out in the latest Roman battle gear.

Piper's heart fell into her gut. The scenes swirled in the dagger, showing her blood and fights. She saw satyrs and naiads laying in pools of their own blood, staring unblinkingly at the sky above them. She saw Romans and Greeks alike laying perfectly still on a hill slick with crimson mud, and the lake was stained red. She saw Chiron get a sword stabbed between the muscles on his foreleg and his hip bone, and fall.

She saw demigod killing demigod, and she felt... scared. Very, very scared. She didn't think she could Charmspeak her way out of this one. Almost in alliance with her thoughts, the blade showed her a close up of Octavian... and the earplugs wedged into his ears.

At least they had some time... but how much?


	11. Nico Thinks He's a Badass

**OK, here's that second chapter I promised. :3 BTW, if you want to see what Adrian looks like, I put in a cover picture or whatnot with her in it. AND AS FOR SOMETHING TO PUT IN THE REVIEWS, IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY, how about suggestions for chapter titles? I'm not too good at the funny-chapter-title thing, so help would be greatly appreciated. Remember to review please! :)  
**

* * *

Nico was starting to piss me off, to put it in modern terms. I left Piper and Jason to have their little romantic sunset moment, and just made it around the corner when his hand connected with my shoulder, slamming me flat into the wall. I was quick to grab his wrist and shove him away, but he just reached back and grabbed my shoulder again, pushing me down below decks.

"What are you doing here?!" he hissed, angry, his eyes flaring. I looked at him perfectly evenly.

"The Doors of Death opened," I said, in a duh tone. "I was one of the first ones out."

"You were in..." he looks around to make sure he isn't being overheard, steps closer, and hisses in my face, "Tartarus! There's no way out of there!"

"Nico, Nico, Nico," I said, sighing. I believe I'm getting pretty good at talking like a modern day individual, dropping a large quantity of my formality. "The doors of Death are there, remember?"

"You got out... of Tartarus... through the Doors of Death?" he asked. His face was growing steadily paler, and the force on my shoulder lessened slightly. "That means... _anything _can get out of there."

"Excuse me," I said, "But I rather like to think I'm more talented than ANYTHING." He shot me a glare, but I guess I earned it.

"That means... anything and everything in Tartarus can get out through those doors. Nyx... all the titans... everything can _get out,_" Nico said angrily.

"Not really," I sighed, shaking my head. "I made my home down there right by the doors. That's why I could get out. Down there, like you should know, the weight of millions of pounds rests on your shoulders. It's practically impossible to move more than a hundred feet without being utterly exhausted. Do you have any idea how long it would take for someone to get out?"

"I have some idea," Nico said, a muscle in his jaw twitching slightly. "A bit over a month, wouldn't you say? Maybe two?" My stomach dropped slightly as I realized just how long the Doors of Death had been open.

"We have to get there before they get through," I said, determination creeping into my voice.

"It doesn't matter when we get there," Nico said, as though explaining to a slow child. "It matters when PERCY gets there. And considering it'll take him just as long if not longer than the Titans to move through Tartarus, and the Titans are already nearly out... we can't close the doors on them, Mavum."

"Adrian," I corrected. "I'm Adrian now."

"You have been Mavum for the past 500 years and I'm damn well going to call you it!" he said, getting very angry.

"Nico Di Angelo!" I said, beginning to get angry myself. I tried to calm myself, but couldn't entirely. Lightning crackled in arcs across my skin, zapping his hand away from my shoulder. I stepped towards him, backing him up against the wall and wagging my electrified finger in his face. The water a hundred meters below the ship began to shudder. "You will treat me with respect. I know perfectly well what I am doing. I have a plan. I KNOW EXACTLY... **EXACTLY **how this is going to play out. Are we perfectly clear?"

"Really? You've thought of everything?" he said, his face crinkling into a snide smile.

"Yeah, I bloody well have. I've had a great deal more time thinking about this than YOU, even IF you are 75 or however old you are! I have got SEVERAL centuries on you, and don't you forget it!"

"So you've thought of this one... little... snag," Nico said thoughtfully, stepping out of the reach of my lightning finger. "This one... TINY... thing. You see, someone is going to have to be on the other side of the Doors to close them." My face went perfectly blank. I very carefully smoothed my facial expression into nothingness, making my eyes dead so he couldn't read me.

"As a matter of fact, I have," I said. My voice was perfectly even and devoid of emotion.

"And who..." his face wen slack as he realized what I was meaning, despite my best efforts. His face changed into something entirely different then. "No, Mavum. You can't."

"Do NOT tell me what to do. You are almost like my little brother. Do not even TRY to tell me what to do," I snarled. "So you, Nico Di Angelo, can very well bugger off. Just because when you were exploring the Doors of Death and you saw me sitting there in Tartarus does NOT mean you have some sort of mental connection or special knowledge about who I am or what I'm going to do. So how about you just sit there like a good little boy and LEAVE. ME. BE."

I spun on my heels and marched down the hallway, banging open the first door I came across and disappearing inside.

* * *

**Hazel**

Hazel's door crashed open and she was on her feet in an instant. But the only thing that greeted her was Adrian, with her face the same color as her hair. Hazel sits back down slowly and warily, watching the girl. The girl shuts the door and presses her back into it, sliding down to sit on the floor.

"Your brother can be a real... I don't even know a wide enough array of modern curse words to discribe him anymore, you know?" Adrian said, looking up at Hazel.

"He can," Hazel said testily. "But I love him anyways. He's my brother, I'm sorta obligated to."

"Well... yeah, if you say it like that," Adrian sighed, putting her head in her hands and covering her eyes.

"Yeah," Hazel said, glancing around the room. Adrian straightened and leaned her head back against the door.

"He thinks he can tell me what to do," Adrian sighed. "Like he knows me or something. Well, news flash, I was in the underworld a lot longer than him. He doesn't get what it's like to be trapped down there."

"I know, right," Hazel said, relaxing more. "I was down there for a while too, you know. It was so... empty, and cold, and blank."

Adrian nodded, sighing. "And just because he's a son of Hades he thinks he gets what it's like to be down there and think you're never ever getting out. What part were you in, anyways?"

"The Feilds of Asphodel," Hazel said, slightly uncomfortable. She was beginning to relax to this girl. Someone who had been in the Underworld, too? Someone she could talk to about this? That's... awesome.

"Ah, dude, why?" Adrian asked. Her voice was still thick with an accent and was tinged with an old way, but she was picking up fast on modern words like "dude".

"Because... well, either my mom or I were going to go to Elysium and the other would go to the The Fields of Punishment. So, I convinced them to combine our sentences and give us both Asphodel..."

"Dude, that sucks. Were you that chick with the iceburg and Gaea 60 years ago, then?" Adrian asked, leaning forward on her knees. "I remember seeing that going on. Not to sound insensitive or anything but I definitely won 300 drachma from that. Some guy was betting you wouldn't have the guts, but I got you covered," Adrian said, leaning back again. She was trying too hard to speak in a modern fashion, an it made Hazel smile slightly.

"You mean you were betting on whether or not I'd do what it took to save the world? Nice to know people had such confidence in me." Hazel rolled her eyes. "Where were you, anyway?"

"Oh, just this abstract corner of the underworld," Adrian said. Her manner immediately morphed into something sketchy, as though she was avoiding the question. "It matters not, in truth, for as yet I am here, am I not?" Her attempts at speaking in a modern fashion faded with this new shadiness. So Hazel decided to let secrets be secrets, and sat back and talked with Adrian for a while just about the underworld.

They sat in a peaceful conversation, in a sort of timeless lull, and weren't interrupted until the dinner bell clanged.


	12. The Biblical Basball Team

**Wow. So, looking at the views, alot of people stopped reading after the first chapter... Sorry I didn't keep your attention. :/ *Spartan hand motions* ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!**

**Anyway, as always, review pretty pretty PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP. Guys, reviews are seriously important to me. I really really want to get 100 reviews on this story. My other stories have gotten like, 50, and I wanted this one to be a step up.  
**

* * *

**Leo  
**

Leo's plate of food was clean, but he was too lazy to bother calling up more food. He sat back contentedly with his hands folded over his stomach, listening to the quiet buzz of conversation around the table.

"Lies," Jason was saying, "The Los Angeles Angels are way better."

"Dude, no," Coach Hedge held up his hand. "DEFINITELY the Yankees."

"Did you know the Lose Angeles Angels translates to 'The The Angels Angels'? That's just weird," Leo chipped in. "For names, Yankees are way better."

"Thank you!" Coach Hedge said, throwing a hand up in the air. Adrian was watching them with a blank expression. She still hadn't made eyecontact with Leo yet, and it was starting to weird him out.

"What are these 'Yankees' of which you speak?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. Coach Hedge stared at her with his mouth open and his eyes slightly lopsided in disbelief, and Jason hid a smirk in his hands.

"Have you heard of the Angels before?" Jason asked her.

"Of course," she said, nodding in a confused way.

"HA!" Jason said, pointing at Hedge. "Even someone who hasn't been alive for a few hundred years knows about the Angels."

"Yes, they are in the Bible," Adrian said, glancing back and forth between Hedge and Jason. Hedge roared with laughter.

"She doesn't mean YOUR Angels, Static Boy!" Hedge said, doing something Leo could only describe as guffawing. The conversation deteriorated back into mindless blabber about sports, and after a while Adrian got up and padded out of the room and down the hallway. Leo was starting to get bored with the conversation, so he got up and followed her out.

He made it into the hallway, and couldn't see her anymore. So he shrugged and walked up the stairs, wondering where she got to. He saw her leaning against the railing, looking out over the landscape. The sun had set entirely, sending the world into a deep blue twilight. Lights twinkled above and below from the stars reflecting off the waves, and the only sounds were the rolling of waves and the whispers of the wind, and Leo's own breath.

"Hullo," she said, without looking around.

"Hey," Leo said, and she stiffened slightly.

"Leo," she said evenly, not turning, keeping her eyes set upon the horizon. Leo frowned, and walked along the deck to the railing. He leaned on the bar five feet down from her, looking over at her. The moonlight made her face more eerie than usual, making her skin look blue and casting deep shadows along the side of her nose and cheekbones. She closed her eyes and, without the oddness of her eyes to stare at, he realized that she was pretty. He started slightly at the thought.

"Pretty weird conversation down there, huh," Leo offered. Her eyes snapped open, and she spared him a fleeting glance.

"Yes," she agreed. "Perfectly odd. Never had I thought demigods would be so interested in the affairs of mortals with wooden clubs and white tights." Leo snorted at her description of baseball, and turned to face out at the landscape.

"Well, things have changed," he said. Silence stretched out between them. "It makes me wonder why you came back. You must've been in warrior's paradise for your accomplishments, right? So why would you come back through the doors?"

"No," she said. "I was not there. I was offered very little choice in the matter. I do wish that perhaps not so much time had passed, but I cannot choose what time I get to live anymore than you, Leo Valdez." Her voice was halting over his name, as though it tripped over her tongue in some weird way. There was too much emotion in his name for Leo's comfort, and he took a half step further away.

Leo thought about pushing her, but decided that wouldn't be smart. So instead, he pointed to the metal amulet with the lopsided glass beads. "What's that?" She looked down at it, rubbing her thumb over the metal.

"I've had it longer than I can remember. When Queen Elizabeth sent me away, she sent me with this necklace as a token of my blood line. If you look closely, the outside is etched with a rose, and then there's lightning and waves. Waves, for Poseidon. Lightning for Jupiter. And the rose is for the House of Tudor," Adrian explained, letting go of the necklace and causing it to swing like a pendulum. "The beads are because I lived two years with Camp Half-Blood."

"What was it like?" he asked. "In the old days, I mean."

"It was... different than I've seen it more recently," she said thoughtfully. "There was no lake, of course," she smiled wryly. "There was no electricity, we used torches. We actually found a way of mixing Greek Fire and some sort of chemical, we didn't know the name of it, to make a cool burning blue fire that we'd put in lanterns and hang from trees that turned it into a sort of magical faerie world. It was beautiful. The nymphs would sing and play instruments in the creek, and the air was so clear that you could see the moonlight reflecting on the ocean from across camp. It smelled of the ocean there, and campfires, and oak trees. It smelled like home. Everyone always seemed to smile, and the cabins weren't so divided like they are now. There was no war between the Athena and Poseidon cabins... we didn't much care what our parents had to say about it, either. We were all like the best of friends.

"It's changed so much." she sighed, her hand going absentmindedly to her necklace again.

"You sound like you knew someone who fell into that 'best friend' category," Leo said, changing position so he rested on a single elbow and was facing her. She was barefooted, and he was in shoes, giving him just enough height to look down at her.

"Yes," she agreed. She didn't add anything to the statement, and just when Leo was starting to think she wouldn't, she said, "His name was Tanner. I found him while I was searching Europe for Chiron. He was an illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, and wanted out. Turned out, his mum was Athena, and that's why he was illegitimate. Ironic, isn't it? I don't even know if his real name was Tanner, but it's what he told us."

"What was Tanner like?" Leo asked, starting to get honestly curious about the past of this girl standing infront of him. She was like a piece of machinery from some place he'd never been to, with such strange stories to tell. He wanted to take her mind apart and sort through everything there was to see, all these foreign thoughts and memories and dreams. He realized that was probably NOT a healthy way to be thinking, and clamped down on the thoughts.

"He was... very soft voiced," she said. "Very strong, and he always had a smile to his eyes. He was very graceful, and dancing with him was like walking on air. He had this weird, lopsided sort of smile. He would come up behind me and try to startle me by wrapping his arms around me but I always heard him coming. He was oblivious a lot of the time in a funny sort of way, and when he got tired he'd laugh at everything and he always had this upbeat sort of manner to him. Very much a gentleman." She faded out, and he noticed a sad sort of smile on her face. The moonlight reflected in her eyes, making them both look like a blue-silver.

"What happened to him?" Leo asked.

She sighed. "He died fighting the monsters, trying to protect the camp," she said, cursing under her breath. "If I had been faster to make that barrier, then... But that's from a long long time ago."

Leo was speechless. He realized Tanner had died, of course, duh it had been like 500 years ago or something... but she had watched him die? Leo's greatest worry was watching someone he was close to dying. If Piper or Jason or Percy or anyone on the ship died, it would haunt him. They were all he had left after his mum died.

"I watched my mum die," he offered after a moment. "It's not the same, but I know what it's like."

She smiled at him gratefully, looking at him for the first time. He saw age written into her eyes, entirely tired beyond belief.

"I saw that happen," she said, her face closing up again. "I wanted to do something, but as a spirit there's not much I can do. I didn't realize that..." she trailed off. He prompted her to finish, but she just shook her head.

"What did Tanner look like?" Leo said, trying to keep the conversation going.

"It's not important," she said, her tone suddenly clipped as she looked at him. Her eyes seemed to stab straight through him. As she stared at him with such sadness, Leo had the uncomfortable feeling he knew what Tanner had looked like.

Feet thudded on the deck, and an out of breath Hazel appeared between them. "Camp Half-Blood is being attacked by the Romans, now! We have to do something, Chiron's on an Iris-Message!"


	13. Caesar's Salad

**DON'T SCROLL DOWN! I know, ew, author's notes. I just wanted to remind you guys that reviews are very important to me. If you've already decided to review the chapter, please continue scrolling. If you haven't, I'm afraid you have to keep reading. I'll even give you a prompt: I want to read your stories. If you have one, fork over the link bucko. If you don't, then write some cool short story thing. Or ask me a question, and I'll reply to it in the next chapter. Thanks!**

* * *

**Jason**

The ship was in absolute chaos. Everyone was running around doing their pre-battle mojo, gathering weapons, practicing powers, blah blah blah. Typical demigod stuff. Jason stood in the middle of the deck, watching weapons get thrown from person to person, when he held up his hand.

"Wait!" he yelled, his brain slightly sluggish but still functioning. "How... precisely... are we supposed to get there?" Everyone slowed down, and it was Tyson who finally answered.

"Mrs. O'Leary can get us there," Tyson said, nodding fiercely.

"Fabulous," Jason said, "But how many can she take?"

"Four," Tyson said, then rolled his one eye up in thought. "Five, maybe."

"Awesome," Jason said.

"I can get myself there by shadow walking," Nico volunteered, raising his hand slightly and flopping his black hair in his face.

"So, not all of us can go," Jason said, giving Nico a nod. "Who all should go? Probably the people with the strongest powers, yeah?"

"I AM GOING," Coach Hedge declared, swinging his bat wildly above his head. "I'M GOING TO EAT ROMANS LIKE CAESAR SALAD." Jason took a precautionary step backwards, holding his hands up to coach Hedge.

"Sure, sure, you can go," Jason said.

"I should go," Frank said, stepping forwards. "I can help." Jason nodded towards him.

"I want to go!" Tyson said, walking up to Jason with heavy footsteps and looking down at him from his height of over 2 metres. Jason had to crane his head backwards to see Tyson's eye, and simply nodded.

"And I'll go," Jason said. "That makes 4."

"I'm coming, of course," Adrian said, crossing her arms over her chest. Jason gave her a measured stare, taking in her messy red hair and her lopsided Camp Half-Blood T-Shirt. It was hard to believe that this girl, who was no older than himself, had much fight in her. And, he still didn't trust her.

"Perhaps Leo should go," Jason said after a moment.

"Nah, bro," Leo said. "I've got to keep an eye on Festus and make sure nothing attacks here."

"I'm. Coming," she said, her cream voice suddenly very hard and cold. Like Ice-Cream. Jason smothered a grin at the thought. "Everyone grab hold of Mrs. O'Leary. And DON'T sas me, Jason Grace." Jason glared at her.

"It's Uncle Jason to you," he replied.

"Not when I'm hundreds of years older than you," she said, turning those bone chilling eyes to him. "You're more like my baby cousin or something."

"Dude, did you even have your 16th birthday? Hmm? Well, I just turned 16," Jason replied, smiling slightly.

"GUYS!" Hazel broke in, her voice raised. "This is NOT THE TIME! Go save Camp Half-Blood! Go go goooo!" She hit Mrs. O'Leary on the rump, and Mrs. O'Leary lurched forwards and the world around Jason rippled in shadows, making his stomach turn inside out and his feet feel like they were where his head was, and his head feel like it was where his feet were. Everything was dark and he seemed to tumble through space, until the grass lurched up to meet his feet out of nowhere. Or perhaps his feet lurched down to meet the grass? He couldn't tell.

When his vision cleared, he saw he was in the shadow of an old tree in Camp Half Blood. He could see the lake glistening and the crest of the hill, and over the hill he could see Roman troops marching. Camp Half-Blood was filled with people running and yelling, the clanking of armor, the stamping of Pegasi, the yelling of familiar voices, and even Chiron's heavy hoof-falls.

"Everyone ready?" he asked, looking around and receiving several nods. "Let's go!"

The ground flew along under Jason's feet, power surging through his blood. He felt the stir of thunderclouds over head, and a huge clap of lightning shook the very ground he ran across, his breath coming thick and evenly. He heard the running of demigods, and he looked over his shoulder to see Adrian gliding an inch off the ground, miming running but in such a smooth motion she seemed ghostlike. He looked over his other shoulder to see a huge barreling T-Rex with a slightly babyish face. Directly to his right, he could see Nico leaping from shadow to shadow.

Mrs. O'Leary and Tyson were bounding along to the far side of the camp barrier with a small fleet of the Ares cabin to cut off a smaller group of Romans. To his left, Hedge was running with a fleet of other satyrs and naiads with his club flying around overhead.

A huge chasm opened up infront of part of a Roman legion, from which skeletons rose up and clacked fowards.

"Don't kill them, Nico!" Jason warned, and Nico nodded his acknowledgment. The skeletons began wrapping themselves around the Romans and dropping to the ground with the Romans incapacitated. There was a crunch of bones that reached Jason's ears, and he grimaced.

There was a whistle of air and he looked over to see Adrian running sideways to the lake, which flooded up into the weirdest thing he had seen. It was like a huge enlarged water figure that she flew up inside of, controlling it from the inside like a massive puppet. The water monster's huge fists came down, hitting entire Roman legions and washing them down the hills. Jason reached out with his hand, and a bolt of lightning hit the ground infront of them, making many of them stagger backwards.

That was all he had time to do before the two armies collided. He reached for his sword, and began swinging and jabbing at anything in a purple cloak he could see. He aimed for wounding blows, not kill strokes, but he knew some of them may die. He didn't want to wipe them out, not so soon after getting back Athena's statue and igniting a potential reunion between the demigods.

He jabbed his sword into someone's shoulder, fighting his way through the sea of purple cloaks and armour, searching for someone – anyone – that would tell him he was getting near Octavian. He had a thing or two he wanted to show that scrawny little –

Augh.

Ow.

Gah.

What?

Huh?

He looked down in absolute astonishment, to see a blade poking through his ribs. He followed along the steel blade, up the arm, and into a very sad, very familiar face. His knees buckled, and he felt blood spilling down his stomach.

"Sorry, Jason," Reyna whispered.


	14. I Talk To A Rainbow

**So, I got a review suggesting that maybe if I updated less I would get more reviews. Is that true? For all 25 of you who read my story yesterday, if I didn't update every day or every other day would you review more? Is that what it would take, only updating maybe once a week? **

**I know I personally hate it when people don't update for weeks, not after I'm hooked on a story. But is that what you guys are going to make me do?**

* * *

**Mavum/Adrian**

My muscles burned. It had been a very long time sense I'd had to use them like this, to say the very least, but I didn't stop. My energy was waning so much that I could feel my hair growing damp, and the water was taking longer and longer to regenerate into huge watery fists. In a huge spray of water, a rainbow glistened into being, and from it an image formed.

It took me a while to see what was in it. First it was just chaos and flying droplets of water and a little shadow, so much so I couldn't tell if the water was my own or part of the image. Then, Leo's mop of black hair flew across the image, holding onto something glowing and orange.

"... Mavum... Adrian... ADRIAN... ADRIAN!" his voice gradually grew louder, and his face appeared. "Help! Ship under attack! DRAGON!" He flew the other way, followed by a bright orange body and a breath of something that looked suspiciously like fire. "AAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDRRRRRRRRR RIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN NNNNNN!"

"I got it, I got it! I'm getting them, we'll go over there! Five minutes, tops!" I said, dropping my water and going down to the ground. I looked around, and saw Jason spinning through a field of purple. I jumped off the ground and glided over the Roman troops. "Jason! JASON! We gotta go, now! Get the others, meet me back at the tree!" He looked up, and I saw something that chilled my blood. He was on his knees. There was a sword between his ribs, and his shirt was stained bright red. Reyna slowly pulled her sword out, and my jaw dropped.

"TYSON!" I yelled, using the wind to carry my voice. "NICO! FRANK!" I plummeted to the ground, buffering troops away with huge gusts of wind. Adrenaline provided me the strength and energy I had started losing, and I ripped Jason's shirt off, pressing it into his ribs and trying to stop the blood flow. His eyes were fluttering, and I cursed, trying to push harder.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" I yelled, turning on Reyna. "YO', DUMB(insert curse-word of your choice here), YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ON OUR SIDE! I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE INTELLIGENT?" I would have got up and punched her in the face if I wasn't too busy trying to keep Jason's intestines from spilling into the dirt. I slammed Roman troops back again with another gust of wind, and I heard heavy footsteps. I looked over my shoulder and saw, to my relief, that Tyson had heard me and was running up the hill. He picked up Roman troops like rag dolls and threw them across the hill, Mrs. O'Leary fast on his heels.

The flood of warmth under my hand was beginning to eb, and I looked back down at Jason. His eyes were closed and his breathing was rapid and uneven.

"Why do you even care?!" Reyna yelled over the wind.

"He's my uncle, dip(insert another very undiplomatic word here)! And I thought you were supposed to have a crush on him?! You don't spill your crush's guts all over the ground!" I reached with my free hand, grabbed a rock, and threw it at her face but she dodged it easily. It didn't matter, though, because by then Tyson had reached me.

"Sissy? What happen– JASON!" Tyson bellowed, so loudly that I had to resist the urge to clamp my hands over my ears.

"Tyson, I need you to pick him up VERY CAREFULLY," I said, "And hold this shirt against his side. OK?"

Tyson nodded his incredibly over-sized head, and bent down, scooping Jason up into one arm like he weighed nothing and clamping down on Jason's side with his other fist.

"Tyson, the ship is also being attacked. We need to get back ASAP, alright? Go with Mrs. O'Leary, yeah? Wait for me under the tree where we first got here," I said. He nodded his head again, then turned and plodded down the hill. I then looked back over my shoulder at Reyna. Her eyes widened, but before she had a chance to run I wrapped the wind around her in a buffer, holding her utterly still.

"Don't ever... ever... get near any of my family again," I said, my voice low and purring. I then smashed my fist into her face, and let her drop to the ground. "Understood? Fabulous." I jumped up into the air, using the wind to coast over the Roman legions and ignoring arrows and catapulted balls of stone heading my way. I found Nico first, and sent him looking for the others. I then angled myself to where I could see Chiron standing, trying to help a very young camper to safety.

I took my necklace from around my neck, the one that I hadn't parted with since I was very small, and held it close, whispering some words in ancient Greek that I unfortunately cannot tell you because this is an English keyboard. I then handed it to him.

"If you burn it, it'll keep the Romans out indefinitely," I said. I then looked at him. "But it'll have a cost just like keeping the monsters out. Only do it if it becomes necessary." I turned and looked at the Roman legion, which was standing slightly stupid on the hill as Jason and Mrs. O'Leary plowed through them to the tree. "They'll probably retreat for a few days, though, and that should buy you some time. And enough time for us to get back Percy and Annabeth."

Chiron nodded, and I turned to walk to the tree. "Mavum," he called. "Be careful this time, would you? If something happens that makes your mind snap, it would be very dangerous." I looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"Naturally," I said. Some cowardly part of me wanted to take that necklace back and undo the magic I had given it. Just like I had made the barrier to keep monsters and mortals out of camp-half-blood, it had the magic in it to keep out Romans. But it would kill me, too, and this time... more than anything, I wanted to live. But I wouldn't do that. To take it back when it could save 300 lives or more would be valuing my own life at 300 times that of any camper. I was living a second life out of pure chance, and these kids hadn't even had one. If I did take it back, and survived when they died, that wouldn't be a life I wanted to live... and so I took a deep breath, and kept walking.

I hated that cowardly voice in my head, that little voice that said _Take it back, Mavum. You are 300 times more important. _I hated that little egotistical voice. I hated it with every fiber of my being, because it marked me out a pathetic arrogant coward. I tried to make it shut up, and it just... laughed.

Perhaps my mind was already breaking again.


	15. Piper's Hair Gets Messed Up By A Dragon

**THANK YOU! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Everyone, please take a detour to the review page so that way you can see precisely what I meant when I wanted a review. Exactly. Highfive, "Caring Reviewer". That was EXACTLY the kind of thing I was asking for. That's like... totally highfive worthy. Maybe even knuckle-bump level awesome. Now, as for the answers to what you actually asked...**

**I just looked in the only book I had on hand, Sea of Monsters. I remember though that Jason Grace's eyes are just like his sister Thalia's. It said so in the last book somewhere when Percy was thinking about how much he and Thalia looked alike, I don't know the exact page and paragraph or anything, but they're like a stormy grey with a tint of blue (but if you ever actually google grey eyes, they all have blue in them... it's sort of disappointing, so grey blue is often just referred to as grey.) so you were pretty close, maybe they were described as a light blue at some point that I missed – but in all the times I can recall they were described as grey. I did just pull up the website and they said his eyes are blue there, but in the book they compared his eyes to Thalia's... And they were described as stormy blue in Percy's dream in _The Sea of Monsters _(sorry, it's the only book I had at hand...).**

**And, Piper is supposed to feel secure in Jason's presence, and after all her bad visions had passed and she realized that it had helped her face certain dangers she was more trusting of what the blade held. Also, since she was with Jason, she felt safe enough to look at the knife. I know I didn't say that specifically, and maybe I should have, but that's the underlying reasoning to it. **

**Thanks for bringing to light that it's a blue gray described, and I'll try to remember to describe them like that for future reference! :)**

* * *

**Piper**

Piper's heart leaped into her mouth when she heard a subtle _crack! _from somewhere to her right. She looked over and – big mistake, a huge barbed tail smashed into her chest, sending her sprawling across the deck of the _Argo II. _She gasped, putting her hand down to where a deep cut from one of the spikes made blood trickle down her hip. She looked at it and saw something suspiciously white, and her stomach flipped a little. She put her hand over it, avoiding looking at it, and got to her feet again.

She saw Mrs. O'Leary and Tyson sliding across the deck, and she looked frantically for that blonde head she loved so much... and when she found it, she was less than pleased. Adrian was taking Jason's limp body from Tyson and running across the deck, sliding into a room and disappearing. Piper took a deep breath and made a run after her, but the dragon got in her way once more.

She lashed out with her dagger, but it didn't do much against the dragon's hard golden scales. Fire arced into the sky, drying her hair from where she stood on the far end of the deck. She caught a glimpse of Leo hanging on tight to the dragon's neck, trying to keep from being flung into the raging sea. He was waving a sword around over his head, trying to get it in between the dragon's scales, and she could see his hands blistered and blackened form the dragon's heat.

Frank appeared on deck, and shapeshifted into a giant eagle, soaring up into the sky and scratching his talons at the dragon's eyes. The dragon snarled and sparks flew out, catching Frank's wings and sending him tumbling into the ocean. Hazel's scream reached Piper's ears and she could just make out Hazel's golden eyes reflecting the fire as she stared over the deck rails.

Where was Percy when you needed him? Or Jason? Or any of them with the really kick-ass powers? Piper was still wondering this as she dodged another slap of the dragon's tail. What could she do, charmspeak this dragon to death?

... could she?

She stumbled under the bar of the deck for protection, and opened her mouth.

"Dragon!" she called out. Her voice came out as a frightened squeak. She took a deep breath and tried again. "Dragon! Halt in your steps!" The great golden beast paused, and then swung it's huge neck around with lightning speed to stare down at her, a great red and orange eye focusing a dark slit on her. She swallowed self consciously as she realized that the dragon had not one, but three heads. Another rearing head looked at her from somewhere to the right with ice blue eyes, and the third one she still couldn't see.

"Who are you," the dragon asked, in a voice of a hundred serpents, "Who speaks as sweet as the Goddess?" The voice was enough to freeze Piper in her steps... or she would have, if she was moving.

"I am called Piper," she said, squaring her trembling shoulders. "May I inquire as to your own identity, great Dragon?"

"Do you not know me, child of Aphrodite?" the dragon hissed. Piper decided that the voice was overwhelmingly male, and to refer to him as a he. "Does no one remember the guardian of the golden apples?"

Piper's mind raced through stored Greek myths. Where was Annabeth? She knew all this stuff, but noooooo she had to take a vacation down in Tartarus...

Her heart leaped into her throat as she remembered something she had talked about with Annabeth. Annabeth had told her a story, once, that Percy had told her about a dragon named Ladon that they had interacted with... the one that guarded the golden apples. Her eyes flickered slightly and she caught sight of a fourth head.

"I am ever so sorry, Ladon," she said. "The tales do not do such a brilliantly colored dragon as yourself justice." She bowed her head slightly to him. "May I ask why you are here?"

"Lady Gaea has requested your demise," Ladon hissed, "and so it shall be. It's a shame such a smooth talker as yourself shall die... but die you must."

She opened her mouth to spout out something else, something equally diplomatic and placating, when the dragon's red-eyed head flew down at her, mouth gaping and jaw unhinged. She screamed and slid backwards, under the banister, off the deck and tumbling down, down, down... down... until the water slammed up to meet her in a shower of icy coldness.

She gasped as a reflex and the cold water filled her lungs, and adrenaline pumped into her blood, spiking her into a panic. She lashed out and struggled through the bubbles, but she could no longer tell which way was up and which way was down. Her eyelids grew heavy, and she heard a cursing echoing in the water.

_Dear gods, woman, I'm taking care of your boyfriend. Can't you stop drowning for like, two whole seconds? Seriously? _

She saw a face appear in front of her in the foam, with two different colored eyes, an a steely hand wrapped around her wrist. Suddenly, there was air, and the waves were lashing around her neck. Adrian was next to her, glaring fiercely, and Piper looked up to the ship. The dragon was raging on deck, and from here she could now tell that there were not three, nor four, nor even ten heads. There were actually a hundred.

She made it up above the surface just to see Tyson take a fallen blade from the deck, run under Ladon's serpent-like stomach, and slam the sword all the way up to his meaty fists in a chink between Ladon's scales. Golden blood ran down Tyson's thick arms, and a hissing came from Ladon's hundred mouths. The hundred heads curved down to look at Tyson, and then the dragon combusted into ash all over the ship, in a rain of fine soot.

* * *

**Was that long enough of a break to inspire reviews? Because that's what I'm threatening to do. A week between updates. Or, you can review and I'll be nice and update every other day. **

**Review question:  
**


	16. Welcome to the Depths of Hell Itself

**I am so sorry, guys. I had a ton of homework... AP Euro project, AP Euro test, 30 AP Euro essay questions... that's only one of my 7 classes. And I was sick. AND I had a ton of Christmas shopping to do. FML. Anyway, now that it's Christmas break you will hopefully be hearing from me more often. HOWEVER, I was super happy to come back to multiple reviews. So... that was a plus of not posting for a bit, I guess. Anyway. Merry Christmas to all, cheers!  
**

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**Percy**

The darkness of Tartarus was heavy around Percy. He wondered if he had gone blind... and he wondered if indeed he had gone blind, how he would tell. He and Annabeth drifted through space, and his will to do much else was gone. He realized he might as well be deaf, too, because aside from that one voice a few minutes ago – minutes? Hours? Days? Centuries? How was he to tell? – it had been entirely silent.

He felt Annabeth's hair on his arm in the darkness, and decided that even if he was to drift through Tartarus he would be glad. He and Annabeth had been apart so long, and he loved her so much, and now that they were together he didn't want to let go.

_Nonsense, Percy!_ He told himself. _I had promised Nico. They had to find the doors of death!_

_But why? It is so peaceful, here, in the dark. No monsters, no worries. Just Annabeth, and me, and the dark._ He bit his lip, two sides in his mind warring against each other.

_Dude. Seriously? You survived a totally bonkers math teacher, a crazy lady with snakes for hair, titans trying to destroy Manhattan. And you're going to throw it all away? You beat the crap out of Kronos and everybody else – oh, by the way, KRONOS is floating around in the same dark that you are – and you think it's a jolly well idea to stay? Bro. No. Get your ass MOVING. _He forced himself to keep thinking these things over and over again.

Dimly, Percy realized that Tartarus was poisoning him. Poisoning him against leaving. He had to fight it. He had to struggle. He and Annabeth had to make it out, or everything would go WRONG.

The second he had these thoughts, and started struggling through the dark, the dark seemed to... lighten. Thin. Then all of a sudden, he was tumbling through open space for about ten metres and slammed into a hard, stony floor, groaning slightly as his shoulder crunched against a rock. There was a thud beside him and Annabeth let out a slight cry as her not-completely-healed ankle hit the ground.

Slowly, Percy opened his eyes to take in their surroundings. The light seared his eyeballs, and tears swam across his vision, but he didn't dare close his eyes. How long had it been since he had seen light? If he closed his eyes now, could it go away...?

He stared upwards until his sight cleared, and then his heart skipped a beat.

The place where he was chilled him to the marrow of his bones. On either side of where they sat was a huge wall of thorns that reached upwards. The lacing of thorns was so thin that you could see beyond it, where something like a window spread out. Percy saw Camp Half-Blood in flames, he saw blood staining the lake he loved so much and he saw so many of his friends' dead eyes staring at him through the brambles.

He took a deep breath. It was a mirage. He knew this. But he couldn't help but wonder... what if it wasn't? How long had he been out? Had he been gone long enough to see his worst fear play out in front of his eyes..? Adrenaline made his hands twitch, and he wrenched his eyes from the brambles and upward. A heavy darkness, almost like smoke, lay perhaps 35 feet above his head, through which he could see absolutely nothing.

The pathway they were sitting in, the tunnel of thorns, wound to his left and right until it left his sight. He turned and saw Annabeth trying to get to her feet. He leaned down and offered her his hand, which she took with a faint smile. Her stormy eyes looked almost dead to Percy, which scared him just as much as the scene outside of the brambles.

"My ankle still hurts," she mumbled sheepishly, as way of explanation. Then her eyes made their way to the bramble barrier, and she froze up in his arm. He felt her trembling faintly under his fingertips, and her eyes widened. He frowned slightly... seeing Camp Half-Blood like this wouldn't do that to her. She loved it, yeah, but not so much as to turn her into a quivering little girl in his arms.

Then he realized... maybe they didn't see the same thing.

"Annabeth," he said softly. "What do you see?"

"Spiders," she breathed, her shoulders trembling. "Spiders everywhere. Cyclopes. Fire. Death." She turned slowly and looked up at him. He saw her eyes well and truly for the first time since she had set out on her quest for the Mark of Athena, and he ran his thumb across her cheek. She looked broken, and hollow, and aged. The gray streak in her hair from holding up the world, which had been gone last time they saw each other, was back. Her cheeks seemed hollow and her shoulders looked so fragile. He was well and truly worried about her for the first time since... well, ever.

Annabeth had always been able to take care of herself. She always HATED it when Percy tried to coddle her. It was part of her fatal flaw, her deadly pride, but now... Percy worried she might break. He realized how strong she was in that moment, too, to have faced her greatest fear and kept a level head... to have thought she had won, and then to tumble into Tartarus.

Then he remembered... the spider had fallen down into Tartarus as well. Arachne was down here. Had Annabeth realized that? Surely she had. Maybe that's why she looked so broken... He hugged her tightly for several long moments.

"We have to get moving," she said softly into his shoulder. "We still have to save the world, seaweed brain." He pulled back and looked down at her. Some of her color had come back and her eyes didn't look quite as dull, so he smiled.

"Lead the way, wise girl."


	17. The Cute Chick is the Devil

**OK, just because I was mean and didn't update for ages, I'm going to go ahead and put this one up right after the last one, even though I haven't had any reviews yet, but I did get over 100 views so that's a plus.**

**But.**

**If you could leave me a review, that would mean a ton to me. I know just by my stats page I have like 30 or so people that read consistently, so that's pretty good, but just knowing that you read consistently doesn't tell me what you actually think of it. So if you could give me a ton of feedback or even just a sentence or something, I would really appreciate it. Reviews mean a ton to me. But, in the end of the chapter I will leave a review prompt if that's something that would help y'all out.  
**

* * *

**Leo**

Leo shivered. The deck was cold, and the fight with the dragon left him drained. He had a cut on his cheek from holding onto one of the dragon's necks. His nice, clean bronze deck was covered in ashes, which he'd probably have to clean up. He sighed. Today was just NOT his number one day. Random cute chick shows up on the ship: She seems to already have some sort of relationship with Nico. Dude, will he ever catch a break? Then, they all leave him behind while they go save Camp Half-Blood. THEN, a dragon shows up on HIS ship, and he has to call them back for help.

Dude.

Not cool.

He sighed, and drummed his fingers on his wii controllers, watching the sun rise in the distance. This was no fun. Like, at all.

As he was thinking this, in the distance over the Mediterranean, an island reared up out of the sea. Actually, on second thought, it wasn't an island, because he could see land still extending far to his left. As he watched, the shore line rolled closer and closer. Blue-green waves hit on white beaches on the coast of what he instinctively knew was the region of Epirus, Greece. Houses walked up a green mountainside, and beyond that mountains looked like a crumpled green blanket. He could see a canyon, that he knew was the deepest canyon in the world.

He let go of his controllers and told Festus to go on autopilot, set for the House of Hades.

The sunlight was so bright and warm, he could almost believe they WEREN'T about to go enter the underworld on a quest they were almost sure to die on. The deck shone under a thick layer of mud and grime, and he walked to where Piper stood by the railing. Piper was very pale, and her eyes were red and puffy.

He knew why.

Jason still hadn't woken up.

He gave her an awkward hug. "We're almost there, he'll be awake by the time we land. I know it," he offered. He hoped his voice was more convincing, but he had seen Jason's wound first hand. It had clipped his lung, and he wasn't sure that even if Jason woke up that he would be up for a trip to the underworld. And, dude, Adrian had been PISSED. Like, her hair might as well have been on fire and smoke coming out of her ears sort of pissed. He wasn't even sure she had been yelling in English, it sounded sort of Native-American to him.

Adrian had dragged Piper up onto the deck, clapped Tyson on the back (like, just barely above the butt. She couldn't reach very high. It was actually pretty funny) and then immediately gone to try to shove as much ambrosia down Jason's throat as she could find.

He had gone in to try to talk to her at one point and she had turned to him and said, very loud, "I came here for my brother and my uncle, and my brother's gone. If my uncle dies, too, you are all on your own! Now, let me heal him!"

It was actually kinda annoying when he thought about it. Why was SHE healing Jason? Like, not that he minded. Dealing with human bodies was weird to him, he'd much rather make something with some wires or whatnot. But, he still didn't trust her on his ship. And... dude, she was bipolar, as far as he was concerned. Very calm and collected, then yelling, then self pitying almost, then yelling some more.

He patted Piper on the shoulder, then steeled himself to go below decks and try to talk to her again. He walked heavily down the stairs, then pushed open the door to Jason's room without knocking.

Adrian was asleep against the wall, her arms folded over her chest and her head lolling to one side. Blood was smeared across her face, blending with her hairline and making her look like a humanoid lobster. Or Satan, take your pick.

Jason's eyelids were fluttering, and a tight white bandage went around his midsection. Leo took a step forwards, his boot squeaking on the floor, and Jason's eyes opened. That was great and all, but so did Adrian's.

Leo immediately took his foot back, watching her. But, to his relief, she didn't yell or get to her feet rapidly or anything. His relief faded when he saw her face, though. Her eyes looked dead, and tired, and her shoulders were hunched slightly. Lines creased her face, making her look like she could have been 30 - which is ANCIENT by his and any other demi-god's standards.

"We're in Greece. We're heading to Hades' temple right now," he offered.

"Good," she said, getting to her feet. "Percy is about a week from the doors. So, we have a week to get there." Her facial expression changed, as though realizing she had told him something she shouldn't've.

"How do you know?" Leo asked, his brows knitting.

"I just do," she said quickly. "Hades-sense and all that. Let's go up top, shall we?"

"I want to go," Jason mumbled. "Fresh air sounds good."

Adrian and Leo exchanged a glance, then hooked an arm around Jason from either side and carried him up above decks.

They made it up to the deck just in time for the ship to coast down to a stop right in front of a huge stone temple. Rocks were strewn here and there from a crumbling roof. Several pillars were broken, and broken stones rested under the ship.

Before Leo's eyes, the temple seemed to reconstruct itself into a fearsome marble structure, and a deep engraving formed in front of his very eyes. The ancient Greek letters fused in his brain, and he understood what it said in an instant.

_Be cautious, weary traveller, for here before you lies_

_A place of darkness, where good cry blood-red tears of eyes  
_

_You may escape but a single way  
_

_Leave a gift, and upon your knees must pray  
_

_Here must you lay down weapons' armouries  
_

_For here you enter the House of Hades.  
_

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__**My plotline actually puts me a chapter behind where I'm supposed to be. My plot outline had this chapter as being them entering the underworld but... I was already over 1000 words. Whoops.  
**

**Anyways. Review Prompt:  
**

**If any one of these characters were to die during the course of this story, which one would you like it to be?  
**


	18. Author's Note: My bad, guys

**Alright. My bad. Actually, my brother's bad. He's the one that chased the cat onto my laptop...**

**Anyway, my laptop is broken. (The screen has a centre to this crack on it suspiciously cat-paw shaped...)**

**So. I will not be able to get on the computer much. And I got an MRI on my wrist (Dude, not recommended. Two thumbs down. That hurt like a B***!) which involved slamming a very large needle in between the bones of my wrist... which means one handed typing! Yay! Which takes forever, let me tell you...**

**The consequence?**

**Welllll I won't be able to write much. So until I get my laptop repaired/replaced, there will most likely be no updates. I know, sucks. But the thing is you'll probably forget or have no clue when this updates for those few weeks, so my request to you guys is to add this to your favorites so that way when it finally gets updated you get a nifty little email telling you so. Just so that you don't forget or whatever or 5 months from now sit there scratching your head like "Hey, what was that Percy Jackson thing with the redheaded freak called?" **

**Sooo... yeah. This is my apology, and please favorite this or whatever so you can know when it's updated. Thanks!**


	19. We Break a Sofa

**So... not looking good here, guys. My parents won't agree to meet me half way and unfortunately, my cat doesn't have much of a piggie bank for me to demand retribution from. So, I have to come up with 100 bucks to fix it.**

**********However, I can use the house computer. And I figured I should try, because it's been like... what, a month? I don't really know. Soooo... yeah. However, this semester is really busy for me, guys, so don't expect my every day or every other day thing like I did last semester. For example... this week I'm skiing all Saturday, homework all Sunday, Robotics on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday till 6, physical therapy on Wednessday till 5:30, blah blah blah. you get the idea. Busy busy me. So, I won't have an hour to just sit down and write like I used to... which I will miss.**

******************My spanish teacher also wants me to try and write her a story... in Spanish... to work out the kinks in my grammar and expand my vocabulary. She told me this in rapid fire spanish of course, so I just sort of smiled and said with the most American accent I could manage, "No hablo espanol" but... it's probably a good idea.**

**************************Maybe I'll try writing one of these chapters in English and then in Spanish. Ouch. That will be painful.**

**********************************OK, enough of my blabing. Here's my go at the next chappie.**

**********************************ACTUALLY I LIED.**

**********************************Answering some questions, first.**

**********************************What I actually meant by the deepest canyon in the world is NOT Tartarus, the litteral deepest Canyon in the whole world is in Greece. In that particular place in Greece, too. Pretty cool, right? The entrance to Tartarus in the deepest canyon... and I did NOT make it up, there is actually like the most famous temple of Hades there, also called by a select few (featurely a certain author you all know...) the House of Hades. Pretty nifty, right? **

**********************************For the height thing, Tyson was at like 8.5 feet which is how tall he was in the most recent stuff because he's growing... he's a Cyclops, right? Don't they get to like 100 metres in some myths...? I don't even know. He was like, two and a half metres tall. And the chick... I don't really know. She's like an inch shorter than Leo and Leo's like 5'6 so probably 5'4 or 5'5, which would put her shoulder around 4'6 and her hand just above Tyson's bum. So, yeah. **

**********************************As for the Prophecy... yeah, I didn't like it either. Do you know how few words rhyme with Hades? Dude. I had to go get a rhyming dictionary for that. FML.**

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******************************Hazel**

The temple was old and crumbling, with some marks around it for tourists. For some reason, now it was entirely empty. It sent a shiver down her spine, the shadows cast under the crumbling stone ceiling a darkness so deep even she could not see through it. Her heart thudded in her chest, just looking at it. She swallowed and tried to take a step forwards, but it was like her feet were glued to the earth. She looked to her right to see a small nugget of gold pop out from the earth.

She heard the crunch of boot on stone, and saw Nico take a step forwards. The shadows of the temple seemed to swallow him whole, until his pale skin disappeared. She strained her ears, but could hear nothing. Her heart rate rose, and she began to panic until his white face appeared out of the shadows.

"Come, come on," he said, motioning to them. Suddenly, it was like her feet came unglued and she walked forwards. Her eyes strained in the sudden darkness of the temple, and the other's footsteps on old stone met her ears.

Suddenly, the old temple burst into flame. She paused, her eyes swimming with colors, and when they cleared she saw it was merely torches... torches lining up and down a very long and very old way. As she looked closer, she realized they weren't quite torches... but rather lightbulbs hung together on a wire that had exploded, and were burning a fuel-less , undecorated arches went over the hallway to support it, and the floor was so uneven that is where Hazel had to keep her eyes most of the time. The hallway ended suddenly, and quite abruptly, in an equally uneven wall.

Shadows flickered across the stone, sending some of it into deep shadow and other parts into startling orange. As her eyes continued to adjust, the cracks and crevices in the wall seemed to change shape. They flowed across the wall, reorganizing themselves to proclaim a name... _Necromanteion. _The name struck a chord in her, and she vaguely remembered it from her studies in Camp Halfblood. It was the name of an old temple of Hades, designed for Necromancy (A/N: Yeah, it's a real place. Google it. It's pretty cool.)

_To enter the realm of Hades' blood, first his blood must be spilt. _The letters splayed out on the wall in an old, greco-roman style of writing. She had just had time to read the statement on the wall when Nico had a knife out, and slit his palm open. Nico pressed his palm against the old stone wall. The blood looked black in the lighting, leaking down the walls. The rivulets of blood spelled out yet more letters: _Welcome, son of Hades._

Hazel shivered. Then she forced herself to stop; no more shivering, or freezing. She was the child of the god of death, and she damn well was going to act like it. She squared her shoulders and set her chin, staring at the wall.

The floor of the chamber began to shake. It was hardly noticeable at first. Infact, she didn't notice it until dust started to fall from the ceiling, and the grating sound of stone on stone filled the air. She watched in a sort of horrified fascination as the stone wall seemed to disappear, from a point in the middle spiralling outwards, tumbling away into nothingness. The old temple stopped shaking, the ground even more uneven now than it had been before.

Nico stepped without hesitation into the hole in the wall, disappearing for the second time in the last 3 minutes from her sight. That was getting annoying. She stepped after him, expecting the stone floor to meet her on the other side...

... but it didn't. Her foot went straight into cavernous nothing, and she fell head over heels through the hole, releasing a quite unladylike squeal. She landed unevenly on a sofa, with one foot over the arm and one arm over the back and her back on the seat and... well, it was just messed up in general. She righted herself just in time for Adrian, Jason and Leo to come tumbling down next to her. Jason groaned on contact with the sofa and doubled over, getting to his knees off the couch just in time for Piper to come sailing through the air to land where he had been sitting moments before.

"You guys might want to move," Piper panted. "Tyson's coming after me."

Hazel's eyes widened, but she couldn't get on her feet fast enough. A very large, and very heavy cyclops fell straight across the couch in her's. Piper's, Leo's and Adrian's laps. The legs of the couch gave way under them and the sofa crashed down. Then, just to make matters worse, Frank fell right across Tyson's stomach. Now, everyone was groaning.

Hazel would have a bruise on her thighs for weeks.

Frank slowly got up off the couch.

"Sorry," Tyson said, his face going red. He climbed off of them slowly, and Hazel rubbed her legs before getting to her feet and finally looking around where they had landed.

The room was simple and surprisingly modern; the floor was a gold and white marble with a deep red sofa and a simple black glass desk, with a single cup on it that held a single pen. The black glass desk had a single drawer that was open, and inside of it Hazel could see piles of golden coins, dollars, Euros, and currency she couldn't recognize. The room was bare except for a plant in the corner and a wooden door with a fogged glass pane. She then looked up; the ceiling was simple and ordinary enough except for the huge gaping black hole just over the couch.

There was the faint ding of a bell, and the door opened. A tall, thin man strode out. He was very elegant and in a suit that looked like it was probably made of silk, with a rich chocolate sort of skin tone and bleached blonde hair. His eyes looked empty enough to give even Hazel the chills, as though there was nothing but death and despair swirling inside his skull and staring out at her.

"The living are not allowed here," he said, his voice sounding tired and dull to her. "Come back when you die."

Hazel shifted uncomfortably as his eyes locked in on her. "But... some of you are dead, now aren't you?" Hazel stepped quickly behind Frank, looking around his shoulder at the man in the creepy suit. She remembered him, of course, and he was not one she was keen to remember... Charon.

His eyes skimmed over Nico and he simply nodded to him, then his eyes fell on Adrian. Suddenly, his chocolate toned skin became very pale. Hazel looked back and forth between Adrian and Charon rapidly, and saw murder in Adrian's eyes. Adrian's hand slowly moved to her lips, and she folded all her fingers down but her index finger... Shhh. No one but Hazel saw her, and of course Charon.

"Do you have a toll to pay the Ferryman?" Charon asked. His voice had a new-found, strained emotion in it rising over his previous tired tone.

"Yeah, we got some drachmas and stuff," Jason piped up. He had gotten to his feet and was now leaning on Tyson for support. Charon seemed to ignore him.

"I do," Adrian said, very quietly. Charon nodded, and Adrian pulled a strange coin from her pocket that Hazel could not say she had seen before. It was some sort of yellow metal that Hazel couldn't distinguish in the light, maybe gold (but it could have been copper or bronze, for all she could tell). It had a woman's face printed on it, who seemed to be wearing a frill around her neck. In letters along the edges it printed: "Queen Elizabeth I Five Pounds". Adrian's hand closed around the coin, and dropped it into the pocket of the Ferryman's suit.

"It is in quite good condition," Charon commented.

Adrian nodded. "I'll be back for it."

"You can't come back for what you pay me with, girl," Charon said, his face changing suddenly.

"I will replace it. Never you worry," Adrian said. Something in her tone made Charon back down. It was strange for Hazel to watch... it made her wonder why Charon was afraid of the little girl with the red hair. Charon bowed stiffly to her, and then held out his hand. Slowly, one by one, they each filled his palm with quarters, drachma, and Roman coins that Hazel couldn't name off the top of her head.

Charon stepped to the side of the door through which he entered and pushed it open. Through the door was a dark green river that seemed to stand still, with a single row boat in it.

"Be my guest."


	20. We Play With The Hound Of Hell

**Oh. My. Gods. Soo sorry. You see, I had written and posted this chapter in MARCH, but it looks like it didn't post! And of course the document hit it's expiration date so it's all gone... bye bye... so sorry if it's kinda brief and whatnot.**

**I know there are no excuses for not updating in... like... 4 months, but hear me out. I got my laptop fixed at the beginning of April, just in time for... Pre-AP rush! For everyone taking Aps you know what I'm talking about... that month long insanity where your teacher realizes they still have like 6 units left to cover BEFORE your exam. Oh lordie... And then of course, there are finals for honors right after that. And just to make it super duper extra fun, I also had two surgeries in that time frame. **

**I got my wisdom teeth out (oh, and apparently, I'm immune to verset – awake the WHOOOOOOLE time. Wasn't that fun?) And then with my wrist which i broke forever ago, they discovered a torn ligament so that had to get fixed. So right now I am in a cast nearly to my shoulder and they managed to set the cast at just the wrong angle for me to type, so even now I am foiled from updating (AKA excuse my typos and minor grammatical errors for the next chapter or so).**

**Another fun little bonus... not only have i forgotten my plotline, but i have lost my plot book so i can't even go back and look up where I was going with this, so I'm just going to wing it.**

**Sorry again... love reviews, and excuse typos!**

* * *

**Adrian**

Ugh. Boats. Have I mentioned that, after spending some time as a lake, I really have no taste for them? Maybe that's because I ALWAYS seem to end up on BOATS! First the flying ship, now floating down the damn Styx on one for only the nth time in my life. Not to mention that throughout the entire bloody ride, Hazel gave me looks like I was Zeus on cocaine and could strike them down at any moment, and Charon was determined that steering thee boat from the farthest possible vantage point would save him from me. Like... was I REALLY that bad?

The only one that seemed truly at ease there on that boat, afraid of neither me nor the place they were in, was Nico. The deeper we got into the realm of the dead, the more he seemed to come to life. He relaxed into the boat, with his arms draped over the sides, and then his eyes met mine. I looked away quickly, seeking something else to focus my attention on. Jason was tense for a while, but soon his exhaustion from his wound took over and he fell asleep on Piper's shoulder. Piper was running her fingers through his hair absently, staring at her shoes in some deep place of thought.

I took a deep, shuddering breath and closed my eyes. The water was filthy, filled with broken hopes... wishes... dreams that never came true. That was a bit of a sore spot to me, and I preferred not to see it if I didn't have to. I allowed to take a few moments for myself to wallow in self pity then, knowing what we were heading to, and knowing what was going to happen. The boat trembled slightly and I opened my eyes to see that Leo had scooted around the edge of the boat to sit beside me.

Seeing his face in this place in particular sent pangs through my heart. His name, his eyes, his hair... they all echoed of Tanner. But they had their differences, and that's what I held onto. Where Tanner had been 8 inches taller than me, Leo only had me by an inch or two. Where Tanner had laughed with his eyes, Leo's whole face changed into an image of delight. I took a few deep breaths, wondering if perhaps somewhere the gods were laughing at me and the sheer coincidence that Tanner's full name was Tanner Leo Valdez... I shook my head briefly, realizing that Leo had scooted around to sit next to me in order to say something.

"... we're going," Leo was saying.

"Sorry, what?" I asked. "I didn't quite catch that."

"I was saying," Leo said, glancing at me, "How are we going to do this? I don't even know where we're going."

"Oh," I said, realizing that while Nico and I knew where we were going, no one else had a clue. "Well, first things first... We have to get in. Past Cerberus and whatnot..."

"Alright," he said. "And then?"

I hesitated. "It's hard to describe, I'll have to show you," I answered. Leo didn't look happy with that answer, but before he could protest, the boat ground to a stop on the river bank. We looked up and saw the entrance to the real section of the underworld. For the entrance to the realm of the dead, when people die every 10 seconds, it was remarkably empty. A few lines of people wound between the paws of a massive canine.

"Holy..." Leo started, his jaw dropping and taking in the fact that the beast was 3 headed.

"Hullo, Cerberus!" I called, getting to my feet and jumping onto the bank of the river Styx. I had visited the underworld a lot when I was alive, and had gotten along very well with Cerberus in the past... Unfortunately, being trapped in Tartarus for 500 years somewhat spoils your previous relationships. Ever since Hades had summoned me down to him to gain his powers, I had learned that the all mighty Cerberus was just a really big puppy with three heads. I heard the thuds of the others landing on the river bank, but my attention was fixed on the giant rottweiler in front of me. His center head lolled down to sniff me, and I got a somewhat intimidating slurp up the face with a tongue so big it stretched from my knees to my face, knocking me backwards a step.

Suddenly a large shape barreled past me and slammed into Cerberus, and Mrs. O'Leary was quite happy to play was Cerberus. Cerberus made her horse-sized self look like a puppy, and I grinned as they played with each other. All the ghosts Cerberus had been standing over were less than happy to have giant dogs playing over their heads of course, but neither of the dogs seemed to care.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, please file on by Cerberus and through the gates if you don't mind," Nico said, gesturing to the entrance to the underworld proper. Piper, Jason, and Leo were only too happy to sprint right on by them. Tyson and Hazel went behind them at a more moderate pace, with Frank walking behind Hazel in a very protective manner.

"Sorry, Cerb, but we have got to go. We'll be back later," I said, wondering if he had a clue what I was saying. "Come on, Mrs. O'Leary!"

The hell hound bounded towards me, and Nico and I quickly skirted up to the entrance to the underworld.

On either side, huge mountains of stone rose up and met over our head in an arch. The stone was a desaturated sort of dark red, and was rougher the higher up it reached. Under our feet, it was polished smooth from the passage of billions of feet. Looking out at the underworld, I realized I had never set foot in the isles of the blessed, or in Elysium, or even the judgment pavilion. I sighed briefly.

"Where to now?" Leo asked.

"This way," Nico said, pointing through the fields of asphodel.

"No," I said, reflexively. The path down to the fields of asphodel were covered in the sand of the worn down rock, and it seemed gentle, but I knew the way Nico had in mind would take three days longer, even if his path was more pleasant - and we didn't have that sort of time. We had one week, not a week and a half to get there.

Instead, I edged towards the Fields of Punishment. "This way."

"What?!" Hazel stuttered. "Are you insane?!"

"Trust me," I said. I inched along the path towards the Fields of Punishment, hanging as close to the rock wall as I could. When the arch ended, it opened out into the underworld similar to an upside down igloo. Right along the edge of the stone, a thin shelf ran a few hundred yards before declining down to ground level on the far side of the Fields of Punishment. The shelf itself was about three to four feet wide, and covered in loose gravel.

I started walking out across the ledge, and the heat from the Fields of Punishment rolled across me in waves. I glanced back over my shoulder at them. "Watch your step."


	21. Eight Blind Mice

**Right. So. Funny story; I just sat here and watched 5 people sit there and try to read through all 25000 words of this story in ONE sitting; three of you have succeeded so far (at the time I'm writing this note) and those 3 have favorited (at least I assume those three...) and I love the fact that you guys like the story so much. Aside from those 5 there were like 75 new views. Stunning response to something I haven't touched in months!**

**Anyway, please leave reviews, they mean a lot to me!**

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**Nico**

Mavum - or Adrian, whatever - was really starting to weird Nico out. Everything was starting to just pile up about this girl. First of all, she had been in TARTARUS. That has to mean she did something wrong, right? He had heard her story before, of course. Seemed like he was the only one who had - and it was different from the one she told. Not much, but enough for him to know that if anything happened to upset her sanity, things could get nasty... fast. Dealing with her was like trying to walk through a mine field.

Then there was the fact that his dad CHOSE to give her more powers than she already had. That only served to make it clear to him just how much of a pawn this girl was to the gods, and he didn't really want their schitzophrenic attention right now.

She also seemed like she just had to one-up everybody. So there's a soon of Hades, Jupiter, AND Poseidon all on one quest? Well, damn, she just better be all three!

Everyone seemed so intimidated by her, though, and that's what he couldn't get. Sure, she sealed off Camp half-blood from all mortals and monsters, which is great and all, but there's no way that would freak out so many people. There had to be something... else.

But then, just when he was thinking she's just some crazy weird-ass goddess sort of... uh, thing... she goes and implies she is going to sacrifice herself to save the demigods, and the world... again.

What?

Is this chick evil or not?

But things still aren't that simple. When he saw her in Tartarus, there was a connection. Something. They were... he didn't know, but he felt obligated to protect her this time, just like with Hazel.

But. Anyway. They all added up to him not being entirely certain how to handle this, and he felt that was starting to risk his stoic appearance... the girl was unnerving him THAT much.

And now, she just MAGICALLY knows about some random path that goes around the outside of the underworld and would get them to the Doors of Death. Basically... he didn't trust her. It wasn't aided by the fact he felt as though someone was going to die... yet the sheer quantities of death in the underworld prevented him from figuring out just who.

This is what occupied his mind as he took up the rear of the group, just behind Hazel, going down that rocky path. Up ahead, Mrs. O'Leary was having a rough time trying to walk along what must have been absolutely tiny for her, and every now and then she sent sheets of gravel crashing into the Fields of Punishment. The path had been working it's way downward for what seemed like an eternity, taking them over an hour just to reach flat ground. When the path finally did meet the ground, another rock shelf extended over their head. The ground to the right began working it's way upward in something like a hill, putting them at a lower elevation that the Fields of Punishment.

The hill on the right kept growing, and in the distance he could see the hill and the overhead rock meet, enclosing the path they were on. The tunnel that formed stretched into deep shadow that even Nico had no idea what it held, and the blindness just made him more uncertain as to whether or not he could trust Adrian.

They stopped at the mouth to the tunnel, and in the dim light, Leo lit his hands on fire to provide light.

"That won't help you here," Nico said instinctively. There was a feeling in his stomach that he had, looking into the darkness of the tunnel.

"This is like the Erebus," Hazel said slowly. "But it feels... wrong."

"The Erebus?" Frank asked, looking back and forth down the line of demigods.

"The Erebus is the strip of earth between the realm of the dead and the realm of the living," Nico explained. "It's the darkness the dead must walk through to reach Hades."

"Oh," Frank replied.

"Yes, but he is also a Protogenos. He IS darkness. He is the son of Chaos," Adrian said, voice soft. "There is a difference between the territory which takes his name... and where he resides."

The sinking feeling in Nico's gut told him she was being truthful.

"Wait... isn't Gaia also from Chaos? Does that make them siblings? Would they be allies?" Piper said.

"Something tells me this is a bad idea. Even if Nico's way is longer, it might be smarter..." Jason trailed off.

"Do Zeus and Hades always ally together? Nooo..." Adrian said. "He sleeps most of the time anyway, and this way is quicker. It only takes about 12 hours to get through these tunnels, and it gets us to the same spot that the other way would in three days. We need to get there at the same time Percy does."

"Fine," Leo said, "But why won't the fire help?"

Nico, Adrian, and Hazel sighed collectively. Hazel motioned for Leo to step into the shadows.

"Try it," Hazel said. Leo looked around at all the tired faces, and then stepped into the shadows, completely disappearing from view. Nico stepped into the shadows after him.

"This isn't just darkness, this IS Erebus. This is a shadow so thick, light can't reach for more than a foot in any direction, so there isn't anything for our eyes to pick up. We will literally be walking blind," Nico explained. His voice was muffled, like velvet, and the darkness was tangible. The misty nature of this darkness made him feel as though it was something between air and water that he was standing in.

He heard the footsteps of the others joining them in the shadows.

"Everyone, hold hands. This tunnel is wider than the path, and it would suck if someone got lost." The voice was so distorted by the heavy darkness he couldn't tell who it belonged to, but he felt hands grab hold of his.

"Follow me," Adrian's voice came startlingly close to his ear, and the person who held his right hand started walking forwards.


	22. The Five Traits

**OK, so, I really do appreciate reviews, but several people aren't... And my goal with this story is to not only top my number 1 story in views (My number one is ~7150 right now), but also in everything else... Like, more than 42 reviews, and 20 faves, etc etc. I'm also trying to top the word count (My longest story on here so far has ~30,000, so I'm almost there on that one...) The reason for that is I want to prove to myself that I am improving. It seems weird, but it's a big deal to me.**

**So I would really like everyone to help me on this journey by reviewing! If you don't have any comments, then...**

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**Who is your favorite character out of Tyson, Jason, Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Piper, and Adrian?**

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**J****ason**

Piper's hand was getting hot in his, and Leo's hand had moved to Jason's elbow. His wound was throbbing, and with each pulse a little more energy left him. If it wasn't for the strange manner of the tunnel, which almost made him float, he would have passed out long ago. There was hot, sticky blood running down his chest and collecting on his belt before running down his jeans all the way to his knees, but he didn't want to make everyone else stop.

His mind was fuzzy, making him drown in his own thoughts. The absolute darkness didn't help him recover his mental awareness, no matter how strong he was. How far had they gone? How long had he been walking? Breathing was becoming difficult, and he wondered if the others heard it through the velvet night. In an attempt to keep his thoughts alive, he opened his senses to everything around him.

The ground was weirdly uniform, and soft, almost like... like the floors to a dance studio. Like rubber, almost. Or velvet. Their footsteps were softly muffled, and the air smelled like earth after rain. The ground began to decline slightly, and a voice he assumed to be Adrian's reached him through the shadows, "We're almost there, another hour only."

Suddenly, the tunnel erupted in a burst of light. The tunnel revealed itself to be at least thirty metres wider than he had previously thought, with the light revealing the features. In the centre of the light stood what appeared to be a man, but he had difficulty telling for certain because the figure was cloaked entirely in shadow. The figure was tall, with broad shoulders, and when the figure looked up its eyes glowed a deeply unsettling shade of yellow.

The figure sighed, rubbed it's forehead, and then a booming voice filled the tunnel and nearly drove Jason to his knees. "WHO DARES ENTER THE DOMAIN OF - Gods dammit," the figure threw its hands in the air. It stomped towards Adrian, jabbing its finger at her. "You! Again?! Just because this is a shotcut doesn't mean you have to walk through my HOUSE. Gods, you haven't aged a day, yet it feels like I slept for centuries."

Jason opened his mouth "Well-" but was cut off by Piper kicking him in the shin. The figure, which he assumed to be Erebus, didn't seem to notice.

"YOU need to stop cutting through my house. Now, get your ass out," Erebus growled.

"I am dreadfully sorry, mate," Adrian said. "Last time... I promise."

"Out," was all he responded, pointing. "I'm going back to sleep." Adrian motioned for them all to skirt around him, and the light disappeared... And they were walking again. Jason appreciated the temporary break they had had, but his energy was gone. His feet were dragging, and the blood was flowing freely now. His footsteps blurred together into one endless shuffle, and he was just about to fall to his knees when they stumbled straight into light.

The tunnel opened up, with the rock peeling back to reveal a continuation of the gravel path that wound for about 10 yards before meeting an open gate. Beyond the gate, the spires of Hades' castle stretched beyond where he could see.

"What do you know," Nico said. "Short cut."

"Told you," Adrian said.

"But now we have to go through it," Nico said.

"We need to see Persephone," she replied. Jason staggered, wondering if he could make these last few yards.

"Oh my gods," Piper said, holding Jason up. "Jason! Why didn't you say anything?!" He looked down and saw that his entire shirt was heavy with blood, and the blood had made it down to his shoes. It hadn't seemed quite so bad in the tunnel...

"Crap," he mumbled. He felt Leo's arm loop under his, taking on some of his weight.

"Hurry, she's probably in the courtyard," Nico said, helping Jason from his other side. He tried to walk, but his feet ended up just dragging behind him as Nico and Leo pulled him through the gates.

Sure enough, Persephone was sitting on a bench under a tree laden with pomegranates. She wasn't alone; she was talking with someone. She looked up to see who had entered, and whomever she was talking to vanished behind the pomegranate tree.

"Don't eat anything," Hazel warned the ragged group of demigods.

"Hello," Persephone called. She got to her feet, and walked towards them. Upon seeing Jason's state, she paused, but motioned to the bench she had occupied moments before. "I'll go get ambrosia," she offered, getting to her feet.

"Hey... Frank," Adrian said, "Go with her and explain what's going on." Frank opened his mouth, but went with Persephone and disappeared from Jason's line of sight. He noticed Persephone was looking a bit pale... he sagged onto the bench, and Piper ripped open his shirt, revealing the wound. It had grown swollen, and was oozing something slimy and yellow that made Piper get a bit green in the face.

"Damn," Nico said. "That's an unpleasant infection."

"No dip, Sherlock," Jason managed. Piper removed the rest of Jason's shirt, which was soaked in blood except for a few patches on the sleeves, and threw it to the ground.

"Where are they?" Piper asked impatiently. Seemingly on command, Persephone and Frank reappeared in Jason's line of sight. Persephone had the ambrosia and clean towels, while Frank carried a bowl, clean clothes, and some bandages. Persephone rushed Piper out of the way, and handed the ambrosia to someone that Jason couldn't see to handle. She dipped one of the towels into Frank's bowl, and started wiping away his blood. Someone pushed part of a cube of ambrosia into his mouth at the same time Persephone cleaned the cut. Searing pain tore through Jason's torso, and he ground his teeth together to keep from screaming.

Before he knew it, it was over. The cut was clean and sealing again, and Piper's hands were wrapping one of the bandages around his mid-section. A small groan escaped his lips, and he cringed. His mouth twitched, and Piper leaned down to kiss his lips. He took a deep shuddering breath, and Piper sat down next to him.

"So... you guys are on a quest to close the Doors, yes?" Persephone asked them, looking around. They all nodded.

"Do you know the path?" Adrian asked.

"Yes... But it has a handful of safeguards on either side of them. Both from Tartarus and from our side..." Pesephone said, settling onto a second bench.

"What are they?" Nico asked.

"There are five on each side," she said, "and they change each time. But they always have similarities, and test a characteristic."

"Are the characteristics always the same?" Jason managed.

"Yes, but they aren't always in the same order."

"Well, what are they?" Hazel asked, leaning into Frank's shoulder.

"The five qualities are courage, strength, ingenuity, knowledge, and... well, magical capacity, I suppose is one way to put it," Persephone said, studying everyone's faces. "How long have you guys been walking? You look exhausted. Stay here the night."

"What do those five things mean?" Adrian asked. "Like... do you have examples for what we can look for?"

"No, I'm afraid not. You'll know them when they come," she said. "Come inside... we need these doors closed just as bad as you do. I'll show you some spare rooms."


	23. AN Psssssst

**Psssssst.**

**In case you guys weren't sure, I'm waiting for someone new to review... other than the one lovely person who's been reviewing lately. :)**


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